Shafaq News- Baghdad

Iraq’s Coordination Framework (CF) has launched a new effort to persuade Patriotic Shiite Movement (PSM) leader Muqtada Al-Sadr to return to the political process, an informed source in the coalition told Shafaq News on Monday.

The source said a prominent leader in the CF —the alliance of Shiite parties that has run Iraq since 2022 and excludes Al-Sadr’s movement— had given members of his party the green light to open channels with the PSM to convince Al-Sadr “in any way possible.”

“The forces behind this effort believe that Muqtada al-Sadr’s presence is necessary in the political process,” he said, adding that the outreach is continuing but has so far received no response from the PSM.

Meanwhile, Salam Al-Zubaidi, a political researcher close to the Framework, told Shafaq News that Al-Sadr remains opposed to returning to the political process or participating in elections unless his conditions are met, particularly reforms, an end to Iraq’s partisan power-sharing system, and measures addressing the issue of weapons outside state control.

Al-Sadr withdrew from Iraq’s political process in June 2022 after calling on all 73 of his lawmakers to resign from parliament, saying he would not participate alongside "corrupt" politicians. He also boycotted the October 2025 parliamentary elections and urged his supporters neither to vote nor run, citing the participation of “corrupt individuals and Baathists while Iraq is on its last breath.”

Read more: Iraq's political enigma: The unpredictable maneuvers of al-Sadr

Despite remaining outside the political arena, Al-Sadr has backed Prime Minister Ali Al-Zaidi’s recent anti-corruption campaign and urged him to pursue corruption cases regardless of political affiliation. He has also repeatedly called for armed factions to come under state control, separating Saraya Al-Salam, the PSM’s armed wing, from the movement in May and ordering its members and weapons to be integrated into state institutions, a move welcomed by Al-Zaidi.

Read more: Al-Zaidi at 100 days: Iraq's toughest tests still ahead