Al-Sadr, whose party won the most number of seats in the May 2018 parliament elections, seized on the public anger over the drone attack to call "a million-strong, peaceful, unified demonstration to condemn the American presence and its violations".
Iraq's top Shia Muslim leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, later called in his weekly sermon for political groups to form a new government as soon as possible to bring stability to the country and enact reforms to improve Iraqis' lives.
He also reiterated his opposition to foreign interference in Iraq, having previously condemned the US killing of Soleimani.
"Iraq's sovereignty must be respected ... and citizens should have the right to peaceful protest," he said.
Friday's rally is supported by mainstream Shia parties, including al-Sadr's political rival Hadi al-Ameri, who heads the Fatah bloc in parliament, as well as the Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF, or Hashd al-Shaabi), an umbrella group comprised of an array of militias, including Iran-backed groups.
Al Jazeera's Imran Khan, reporting from the protest, said the turnout was a "real show of strength".
"It almost doesn't matter if this is a million people or less. The size and the vocalness of the crowd has made sure that the message has been sent now."The New York Times (see "Protesters Mass in Baghdad, Demanding U.S. Leave Iraq") laughably attempts to dismiss the protest by saying it was organized:
This demonstration — unlike those in Tahrir Square in central Baghdad, which have gone on for months and involve a ragtag group of antigovernment protesters with homemade signs and a range of backgrounds — is heavily orchestrated rather than a spontaneous outpouring of feeling.
Participants were recruited, transported by buses provided by the organizers and given signs, flags and sometimes food. The vast majority of the participants are Shiite Muslims, the main constituency of the cleric Mr. al-Sadr and the armed groups close to Iran.
“The organizers of the demonstration in the southern city of Najaf called the Sadr followers, including me, and told us that there are buses and cars to transport the demonstrators from Najaf to Baghdad on Thursday at 1 p.m. and 9 p.m. and 11 p.m.,” said Mohammed Ali, 33, a taxi driver.I suppose the same argument was used by the White Citizens' Council to dismiss Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" March on Washington.
Reuters gets into the act (see "'No, No America': Iraq protesters demand U.S. military pullout") by belittling the protest for "largely dissipating after several hours." Yes, that's what protest marches do.
There is intense antipathy in the corporate mainstream media for Muqtada al-Sadr and any Iraqi leader who stands up for Iraq sovereignty.
Reuters reminds us in the last paragraph of its story that
For the first time in nearly two years, parliament voted along sectarian lines to press the government to kick out U.S. forces. Shi’ite parties voted in favor, while Sunni Muslim and Kurdish lawmakers boycotted the session.There is a bombshell story in the Middle East Eye by Suadad al-Salhy (see "US seeking to carve out Sunni state as its influence in Iraq wanes") which exposes where those Sunni and Kurdish lawmakers where when parliament was voting to kick out U.S. troops from Iraq:
The absence of Sunni and Kurdish MPs in parliament highlighted the fragile relationship between Sunni leaders and their Iran-backed Shia allies. Most abstaining MPs left Baghdad toward either Erbil in northern Iraq or Jordan’s Amman for fear of retaliation.
The latest developments in Iraq have prompted them to search for other options, foremost among which was an autonomous Sunni region, Sunni lawmakers told MEE.
As soon as some Sunni politicians arrived in Erbil and Amman, they met US officials there to "discuss options for both sides,” sources said.
In the early hours of 8 January, Iran targeted two Iraqi military bases hosting US forces, one in western Iraq and the other in the north, with ballistic missiles that left no casualties.
Less than 24 hours later, US Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs David Schenker flew to Erbil, without going through Baghdad, to meet key US ally and former president of the Kurdistan Regional Government, Masoud Barzani, in addition to a number of other Kurdish officials.
Although statements later issued by the US did not mention any meetings that took place with Sunni leaders in Erbil, many sources confirmed that both the assistant secretary of state and Stephen Fagin, the US consul in Erbil, met a number of Sunni politicians “to discuss the implications of the parliament’s decision, the threats that Sunnis face and options for facing the two issues”.
On the same day, Schenker flew to the UAE. There, he later said, he met "by chance" with the speaker of the Iraqi parliament, Muhammad al-Halbousi, “who happened to be there”.
After meeting with Schenker, Halbousi held a series of meetings in the UAE on 9 and 10 January with several prominent Sunni leaders.The plan is to create a Sunnistan with Anbar Province as its anchor:
None of the Sunni and Shia leaders and officials spoken to by MEE have any clear idea of the project’s details.
They all say that it is still just ideas and no clear information has been provided regarding the region’s prospective borders, the number of provinces it would contain and mechanisms to solve the problems that it will face.
It is perfectly clear, however, that the project will be launched from Anbar province, to later include the provinces of Nineveh and Salah al-Din, and part of Diyala.
The proposed Sunni region will be created first in accordance with the articles of the Iraqi constitution, which allows for administrative regions to be established alongside Kurdistan.
Later, the region will be temporarily annexed to Kurdistan in a federal or confederal form, "to avoid the conflict between Sunnis and Kurds over Kirkuk and the disputed areas", according to a prominent Sunni leader.
The last step, MEE understands, will be to have this region recognised internationally.
The Arab Gulf states allied to US, led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, support and finance this project, Sunni and Shia leaders and officials told MEE.
“Funding is in place, international pressure is in place, and the necessary military strength is in place to create this region,” a prominent Sunni leader familiar with the talks said.
“Neither Iran nor the Shia forces will be able to stand against the project because the US and Gulf states back it,” the leader added.
“A huge amount of money and investment offered by the Sunni states is at stake, and these will turn the Anbar desert into green oases and rebuild the destroyed areas in Mosul and Salah al-Din. Who will care about oil?”It is important to remember that immediately following the ISIS capture of Mosul and the collapse of the Iraqi Army this was Brett McGurk's demand of Iraq's government -- an autonomous Sunni region in Iraq with its own armed forces. ISIS was always a means to the end of an internationally recognized partition of Iraq.
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