Shafaq News/ The President of the Kurdistan region, Nechirvan Barzani, on Tuesday warned that the heightened tension might jeopardize the social peace in Iraq and disrupt governance and political process.

Iraq's judiciary suspended work after supporters of powerful Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr camped out near its headquarters to demand that it dissolve parliament, escalating one of the worst political crises since the U.S.-led invasion.

"Peaceful civil demonstrations are a legitimate right protected by the constitution, but the disruption of the judicial institution exacerbates the situation," President Barzani said on Tuesday, "we call on all parties and demonstrators to protect institutions and social peace, and avoid deviating from the peaceful and civil path."

"We, in the Kurdistan Region, reiterate that we, as we are always, are part of the solution. We will provide all the necessary assistance in order to achieve understanding and reconciliation between the Iraqi parties."

"The country needs a serious and responsible national dialogue between the political parties in order to find a solution based on the constitution. This is the only true way out of the crisis and political impasse and leads the country to safety," he concluded.

The populist leader has helped inflame tensions in Iraq in recent weeks by commanding thousands of followers to storm and occupy parliament, preventing the formation of a government nearly ten months after elections.

Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi, who cut short a trip to Egypt to deal with the crisis, has urged all sides to calm down and renewed calls for a national dialogue.

In a statement, al-Kadhimi said disrupting the judiciary "exposes the country to serious risks".

Al-Sadr's Shiite Muslim followers began gathering for protests outside the headquarters of the Supreme Judicial Council and Federal Supreme Court in Baghdad. They have sent threats by phone, the judiciary said in a statement.

"(We) will suspend court sessions as a protest against this unconstitutional behaviour and will hold the government and political parties which are backing this move fully responsible for all the results," the statement added.

The standoff in Iraq is the longest stretch without a fully functioning government in the nearly two decades since Saddam Hussein was overthrown in a U.S.-led invasion in 2003.

Al-Sadr was the biggest winner of the 2021 election but was unable to form a government along with Kurdish and Sunni Muslim Arab parties, excluding his Iran-backed Shiite rivals.

The young cleric, who has unmatched influence in Iraq, can quickly mobilise hundreds of thousands of followers to stage demonstrations and paralyse the country's byzantine politics.

Al-Sadr, who fought U.S. troops and went on to become a kingmaker in Iraqi politics, has called for early elections and unspecified changes to the constitution after withdrawing his lawmakers from parliament in June.

He survived upheaval in the 19 years since his Mahdi Army militia took on the Americans with assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades in the streets and alleys of Baghdad and southern cities.

His followers also fought the Iraqi army, Islamic State militants and rival Shi'ite militias.

Most of Iraq's Shiite political establishment remains suspicious or even hostile to al-Sadr. Still, his political organisation, the Sadrist movement, has come to dominate the apparatus of the Iraqi state since the 2018 election, taking senior jobs within the interior, defence and communications ministries.