Iraqi Sadrists leave protest committee

Iraq’s Sadrist Movement, led by Moqtada al-Sadr, has withdrawn its representatives from a national ministerial committee tasked with investigating demonstrators’ demands, as anti-government protests near their third month. Sadrist spokesman, Salah al-Obeidi, announced the committee had not yielded “any actual outcomes,” stressing his party’s “unwillingness to share in this procrastination,” at a press conference from the Movement’s Baghdad headquarters. Obeidi said: “The ministerial committee is now working as a mediator between the judiciary and the demonstrators to consider the release of innocents.” The Sadrist called on all political forces to "make concessions in order to get out of this crisis." Obeidi meanwhile denied that any Sadrist ministers had boycotted cabinet meetings. Iraq’s Cabinet decided on January 8 to form a ministerial committee to consider “legitimate” requests from protesters according to citizens’ constitutional rights. Demonstrators have also been asked to elect representative committees to petition councils in their local areas.