Shafaq News/ The head of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, Humam al-Hammoudi, on Saturday said that the will of a single person cannot establish a regime in Iraq, and reforms can only be achieved via cooperation.

Al-Hammoudi's remarks came in a speech he delivered during a ceremony on the 41st anniversary of the council's foundation.

"The new political system did not arrive [in Iraq] on the top of a tank. Rather, it was founded after suffering, bloodshed, massive sacrifices, and huge effort that took long years and huge events," he said.

"The will of the Iraqi people will always remain free. They will not allow anyone, whether a partisan, military, or invading force to control them, no matter how powerful it is. Only the will of the people decide the future of Iraq via ballot boxes."

"The political system that came after huge sacrifices and bloodshed cannot continue to achieve its goals unless everybody joins hands to reform and rectify its path."

"A system cannot be established at the will of a single person, group, and party. We should all convene to discuss our issues and find solutions to our economic and social problems," he said.

Iraq's Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr on Saturday said "all parties", including his own, should give up government positions in order to help resolve a months-long political crisis.

Since the aftermath of the US-led invasion of 2003 that toppled Saddam Hussein, Iraq has been governed under a power-sharing system.

But since elections in October last year, political deadlock has left the country without a new government, prime minister or president, due to disagreement between groups over forming a coalition.

Al-Sadr and his supporters have been calling for parliament to be dissolved and for new elections, but on Saturday he said doing so was not "so important".

Instead, it is "more important" that "all parties and figures who have been part of the political process from the American occupation in 2003 until now no longer participate," Mohammad Saleh al-Iraqi, who runs a Twitter account named "the leader's advisor" and is widely believed to be al-Sadr's mouthpiece, tweeted quoting al-Sadr himself.

"That includes the Sadrist movement," he added.

"I am ready to sign an agreement to this effect within 72 hours," he said, warning that without such a move, "there would no longer be anymore room for reforms."

He did not indicate who he expected would lead a future government.

Al-Sadr's followers have for weeks been staging a sit-in outside Iraq's parliament, after initially storming the legislature's interior, to press for their demands.

On Tuesday, they also pitched tents outside the judicial body's headquarters in Baghdad for several hours.

The Sadrist movement's rivals in the Coordination Framework want a new head of government to be appointed before any new polls are held.

Caretaker Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhemi earlier this month convened crisis talks with party leaders, but they were boycotted by the Sadrists.