PM to cancel his invitation for dialogue if the Sadrist boycotts

Shafaq News/ A security source said that the call of Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi for dialogue could be canceled on one condition.

On Monday, Al-Kadhimi is scheduled to invite all Iraqi political forces and parties to hold talks to overcome the country's political crisis

The source told Shafaq News Agency that Prime Minister might cancel or postpone the meeting if some political forces, led by the Sadrist movement, refused to participate.

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

Sadr, whose father was one of Iraq's most respected Shiite clerics, has gradually grown into a key political player in this landscape, bolstered by a Shiite support base that he often mobilizes to press his demands.

Since elections last October, disagreements between Sadr and a rival Iran-backed Shiite force known as the Coordination Framework have left Iraq without a new government, prime minister, or President.

Tensions escalated sharply when Sadr loyalists stormed the Green Zone after he announced he was quitting politics.

But Sadr's supporters then left the Green Zone when he appealed for them to withdraw within an hour, a demonstration of the cult-like following that earned him his kingmaker status.

Earlier, al-Kadhimi said he would "vacate his post" if the complicated political situation in the country continued.

Article 81 of the Iraqi constitution states that the President of the Republic performs the functions of the Prime Minister when the office is vacant, for any reason, until he assigns another candidate to form a government within 15 days.

His stance came after at least 20 people were killed and more than 200 injured in violent clashes erupted in Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone following al-Sadr's announcement that he was withdrawing from political life.