Moqtada al-Sadr, Iraq’s powerful Shi’ite Muslim cleric, said on Monday that he was leaving politics and closing his institutions in reaction to an intractable political gridlock, a decision that could fuel unrest.
‘I hereby declare my ultimate withdrawal,’ Sadr stated in a Twitter tweet, criticising other Shi’ite political leaders for ignoring his reform recommendations.
He did not go into detail about the shutdown of his offices, but he did say that cultural and religious organisations will remain open.
Sadr has already proclaimed his resignation from politics and governance, as well as the disbanding of loyalist militias, but he retains significant control over state institutions and a paramilitary group with thousands of members.
He has frequently returned to political participation following similar statements, though the current political impasse in Iraq appears to be more difficult to resolve than earlier periods of dysfunction.
The present standoff between Sadr and Shi’ite opponents has resulted in Iraq’s longest period without a government.
Sadr’s Sadrist Bloc won the election in October, but he withdrew his legislators from parliament in June after failing to create a government of his choosing – one in which he threatened to exclude powerful Shi’ite opponents close to Iran.
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