BAGHDAD, Aug 23, 2022 (BSS/AFP) - Several hundred supporters of Shiite cleric 
Moqtada Sadr launched a sit-in outside Iraq's top judicial body on Tuesday, 
ratcheting up tensions in a showdown with a rival Shiite alliance.

Caretaker Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhemi cut short a visit to Egypt, where 
he had been due to take part in a five-nation summit, to return home to 
monitor developments.

Kadhemi "called on all political parties to calm down and to take advantage 
of the opportunity for national dialogue to get the country out of its 
current crisis", his office said.

The standoff between the Sadrists and their rivals in the pro-Iran 
Coordination Framework has triggered an intensifying war of words, but so far 
no violence.

The Sadrists, who have already been camped outside parliament for the past 
three weeks, pitched tents outside the gates of the judicial body's 
headquarters in Baghdad, AFP correspondents reported.

They carried placards demanding the dissolution of parliament and new 
elections, 10 months after an inconclusive poll failed to deliver a majority 
government.

Even though his political bloc has taken part in previous administrations, 
securing top jobs in government ministries, Sadr himself has managed to keep 
above the political fray.

He is lionised by his supporters as an outsider dedicated to the fight 
against a corrupt elite.

"We want to stamp out corruption," said Abu Karar al-Alyawi, a Sadr supporter 
among those demonstrating.

"The judicial system is being blackmailed, or maybe it's corrupt too." 
On August 10, Sadr gave the Supreme Judicial Council one week to dissolve 
parliament to end the political deadlock, but the council ruled it lacked the 
authority to do so.

In the face of Tuesday's protest, the council announced it was suspending 
work until further notice.

- Talks boycotted by Sadrists -

The UN mission in Iraq said it respected the right to "peaceful protest", 
while urging "respect for state institutions".

Police deployed in numbers around the headquarters, which unlike parliament, 
lies outside Baghdad's high-security Green Zone government and diplomatic 
compound.

Following the start of the sit-in, the Coordination Framework said it would 
"refuse any call for direct dialogue" with the Sadrists, until they put an 
end to "the occupation of institutions".

The Coordination Framework, which has been holding a sit-in of its own just 
outside the Green Zone, wants a transitional government before new polls are 
held.

They include former paramilitaries of the Tehran-backed Hashed al-Shaabi 
network, and the party of ex-prime minister Nuri al-Maliki, a longtime Sadr 
foe.

Kadhemi, the prime minister, last week convened crisis talks with party 
leaders, but they were boycotted by the Sadrists.

Since the aftermath of the US-led invasion of 2003, Iraq has been governed 
under a sectarian power-sharing system that reserves the premiership for the 
country's Shiite majority community.

The Sadrists insist that after emerging from 2021 elections as the largest 
bloc in parliament -- but not an absolute majority -- the constitution be 
amended to give it the right to nominate the prime minister, something their 
opponents strongly oppose.

The persistent failure of the rival Shiite factions to form a government in a 
country blighted by ailing infrastructure and crumbling public services has 
sparked mounting public frustration.

Iraqis grown used to daily power cuts lasting much of the day now also face 
water shortages as drought ravages swathes of the country.

Despite its oil wealth, many Iraqis are mired in poverty, and some 35 percent 
of young people are unemployed, according to the United Nations.