 The political crisis in Iraq reached new heights as supporters of Muqtada al-Sadr stormed the Iraqi parliament for the second time in a week and began an indefinite sit-in on Sunday, July 31st. The protesters opposing government formation efforts of Mohammad Shia al-Sadrani stormed the high security green zone in Baghdad to demand the cancellation of his prime ministership. At least 125 people including protesters and security personnel were injured when the security forces tried to stop them from entering the zone. The protesters are supporters of Muqtada al-Sadr who had opposed Shia al-Sadrani's nomination claiming that he is corrupt and close to former prime minister Nouri al-Maliki. On Wednesday, Sadr had asked his supporters to leave the high security zone after a few hours, claiming that their message had been conveyed. However, on Sunday, he called on his supporters for an indefinite sit-in inside the parliament calling it a demonstration against corruption, quotas and subordination. Sadr asserted that this demonstration was a golden opportunity to fundamentally change the political system and the constitution of the country. Protesters claimed that consensus based government formation and the sectarian quota of power sharing are the core reasons for inefficiency and widespread corruption in the country. The Iraqi Communist Party reiterated the demand for the abolition of the sectarian quota system and demanded holding of early elections in which the final say will be for the people. Iraq has been reeling under a political standoff following the elections in October 2021. Even though al-Sadr's bloc won 74 seats making it the largest faction in the 329 seat parliament, he was unable to form the government. He did not have the supermajority of two-thirds which is the requirement to elect a president. Following his failure to form a government, he ordered the members of the Sadrist movement to resign in June 2022. So in early June, Muktada Sadr showed signs of like anger and instability and he actually stormed off stage and told his supporters he was angry at them. And then several days after that, he ordered his members of parliament to resign in a move that was quite unprecedented. So Muktada was angry at actually the Emiratis. He thought the Emiratis were messing with him because they had reached a separate understanding with the resistance factions in Iraq after the Houthis hit the UAE from Iraq and it led the Emiratis to reach this like like I mentioned political and financial understanding with Iraqi resistance factions and they kind of sort of abandoned Muktada, at least until Muktada started. So it's all it. So the Emiratis were also quite shocked by Sadr like that Sadr's block was signed. And then moreover Muktada Sadr didn't expect Hel Busi who's the Iraqi like speaker of parliament to accept the resignation. He thought it was just he initially thought this was just a move to get some attention. He didn't accept that like he didn't expect that Hel Busi would so quickly accept the resignation but it turns off the Emiratis that actually called Hel Busi and told him they want him to accept the resignations. Hel Busi actually didn't want to do that but he did it under pressure from the Emiratis. So it was understood that they had made this deal with Iran and the other Shias to basically protect the Emirati interests their interests and Muktada was not having with this. So as a result members of the framework the dominant Shia parties aside that not including Muktada gained dominance over parliament and proceeded with the political process as if Sadr didn't control the country's largest and bloodiest militia. And so on everybody's mind was this concern that Muktada would send his men on the street and cause violence but uh militating against this was the fact that he would have no religious or political legitimacy for this kind of move. You know he'd gained the largest share in parliament. He tried and failed to form a government. His own Sunni and Kurdish allies did not cooperate and he couldn't persuade the independence and so he took the seemingly political politically suicidal decision to order his MPs to resign. So provoking violence would have would be like rejected completely by the Shia clerical establishment in Najaf and the Iraqi population. So all of this said you know this has been happening in Iraq nobody's really certain what Muktada's goal is. You know some say he wants the framework uh to call for early elections but then the framework will make the new election law, the new election commission and so Muktada will be blocked in the coming elections. Others say he wants to bring the system down but he can't do it by force for the reasons I mentioned. You know and the Shia factions are actually stronger than Muktada if he's out of the government. If he's in the government you know he has the state behind him so he can take on the factions but it's also possible that Muktada made a terrible blunder which is increasingly looking that way which is what many Shia political elites in Iraq believe and then he harmed his own interest and it's important to remember you know Muktada Sardar he's not just a politician. He's a religious leader. He has like huge cultural influence. He has this massive movement behind him and he has aspirations that are larger than just mere politics. I mean his control of history did start to dwindle after the 2019 and 2020 protests and actually the turnout to his protests and gatherings was less than in the past but he still is a very powerful strong cultural and religious character in Iraq. The recent protests were triggered following the nomination of Mohammad Shia al-Sudani as the new prime minister by the coordination framework led by Maliki's state of law and popular mobilization forces FATA Alliance. Sudani was the minister of human rights during Maliki's premiership from 2010 to 2014. Iraqis have been demonstrating against the country's political system and the ruling elite for several years now. Demonstrations have taken place demanding changes in the constitution that was formed after the US-led invasion in 2003.