Thousands of Iraqis demonstrated today, Friday, in cities, most notably Baghdad, at the invitation of the leader of the Sadrist movement, Muqtada al -Sadr, to denounce the Israeli attacks on Iran.
In the city of Sadr in eastern Baghdad, demonstrators first performed Friday prayers, then Al -Khatib, Sheikh Khudair Al -Ansari, chanted, “No, America, all of Israel”, while the attendees repeated the slogan carrying umbrellas to take shelter from the incendiary sunlight.
The demonstrators chanted slogans denouncing the Israeli aggression and demanding the Iraqi government not to allow the use of Iraqi airspace as a corridor to continue air strikes on Iranian cities.
Muqtada al -Sadr – far from the Iraqi political scene in the last period – called on Wednesday in a statement to “peaceful demonstrations” after Friday prayers “in every conservative center”, in order to condemn “Zionist and American terrorism (…) and assaulting the neighbor, Iran, Palestine, Lebanon, Syria and Yemen.”
These protests are the first demonstrations to come out for months at the invitation of the chest.
“They are not fighting for the Iranian nuclear,” said the taxi driver, Abu Hussein, considering it “the war of Satan” against Iran and “a false war, and Israel and America have always wanted to dominate the Middle East.” “Iraq must intervene, with weapons, with support, by demonstrating, to support Iran,” he added.
In the city of Basra, southern Iraq, about two thousand demonstrators gathered on a main street.
And Sheikh Qusai Al -Asadi, 43, considered that “if there is a third world war, this war will be against Islam,” denouncing “the transgression of the Israelis and the Americans by Jaw (…) to the sovereignty of Iraq.” He reminded that Al -Sadr “has noted many times not to interfere and draw Iraq and not be an arena for war.”
On June 13, Israel launched an unprecedented air strike against Iran, confirming that intelligence information indicates that the Iranian nuclear program was about to “the point of return”, while Iran is responding to launching missile batches and enlightenings on Israel.
Tehran denies that it seeks to develop nuclear weapons and defend its right to a civil nuclear program.
Israeli strikes have killed at least 224 people in Iran since the beginning of the war, according to an official toll. In Israel, Iranian strikes killed 25 people, according to Israeli sources.
