Sayyed Muqtada al-Sadr Meets PM before Deadline

Local Editor

Senior Iraqi cleric Muqtada al-Sadr met with the country's Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi ahead of a deadline set for the premier to enact political reforms.

Iraq's parliament on Monday voted to give Abadi a three-day deadline by which to present his new government or face a vote of no-confidence.

"Thursday will be the final deadline for [al-Abadi] to present his new cabinet," MP Rahim al-Draji told Anadolu Agency.

Sadr's Ahrar bloc, which holds 34 seats in the 328-seat parliament and three ministerial portfolios in the current government, rejected a proposal to give al-Abadi a further two weeks to unveil a new government.

Sadr met al-Abadi on Sunday night, hours after the clergyman entered Baghdad's Green Zone, which houses the government, parliament and various embassies.

The cleric is there to stage a sit-in, in protest at Abadi's failure to reform the country's political structure as he has promised.

Last month, Abadi announced a plan to replace current ministers with technocrats because the current system promoted graft by means of appointing people to posts along political, ethnic and sectarian lines.

The whole country has witnessed weekly demonstrations since last August over financial and administrative corruption in the government.

Sadr entered the area together with dozens of his bodyguards and politicians with the Sadr Movement without meeting any resistance on the part of security forces.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team