AFP

The highest judicial authority in Iraq announced on Sunday that it does not have the power to dissolve the parliament, after Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr demanded the judiciary to do so within a maximum period of the end of the week, amid a stifling political crisis in the country. Al-Sadr called on the Iraqi judiciary to dissolve parliament before the end of the week "after the constitutional violations" represented by the expiration of the deadlines for choosing a president and prime minister, justifying his request that the political blocs will not bow to "the people's demand to dissolve parliament." Both the Sadrist movement and its opponents, the coordination framework, continue to put pressure on the street as the situation deteriorates between them. Since July 30, al-Sadr supporters have been holding a sit-in in the courtyards of the Iraqi parliament, while supporters of the coordination framework have started a counter-sit-in on the walls of the Green Zone two days ago. The Supreme Judicial Council, the country's highest judicial authority, said Sunday in a statement that it "does not have the authority to dissolve the House of Representatives." He added that "the functions of the Judicial Council ... in their entirety are related to the administration of the judiciary only, and none of them has any authority that allows the judiciary to interfere in the matters of the legislative or executive authorities in application of the principle of separation between the three legislative, executive and judicial powers" contained in the constitution. Article 64 of the Iraqi constitution stipulates that the Parliament shall be dissolved by “an absolute majority of its members, at the request of one-third of its members, or at the request of the Prime Minister and with the approval of the President of the Republic.” At the same time, the Supreme Judicial Council agreed with al-Sadr "in diagnosing the negative political reality the country is witnessing and the ongoing constitutional violations represented by the incomplete formation of the constitutional authorities by electing a president and prime minister and forming a government within the constitutional periods." Al-Sadr raised the level of pressure on his opponents on Saturday by calling for a "million" demonstration in Baghdad, the date of which has not yet been set. Saleh Muhammad al-Iraqi said in a statement that "after the protest was divided into two camps", it became necessary to know which of the two camps was "more numerous and sympathetic to the Iraqi people." Since the early parliamentary elections in October 2021, Iraq has been in complete political paralysis with the inability to elect a new president of the republic and form a new government. Since July, the two Shiite parties have been facing a new escalation of severe political differences without the crisis situation leading to violence, amid the Sadrist movement's demand to dissolve parliament and hold early legislative elections, in exchange for the coordination framework's demand to form a government and reconvene parliament. The coordination framework includes, in particular, the parliamentary bloc representing the pro-Iranian Popular Mobilization factions, and the bloc of former Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, Sadr's historical opponent. In its statement on Sunday, the Supreme Judicial Council asked "political and media bodies" not to "involve the judiciary in political rivalries and competitions," stressing that the judiciary "stands at the same distance from everyone.