Washington calls rival Iraqi parties to seek constitutional solutions for political differences 

Shafaq News/ Washington urged contesting parties in Iraq to shun violence and seek constitutional solutions for the ongoing political differences.

In a statement issued earlier today, Tuesday, the US embassy in Baghdad said, "We are closely monitoring reports of unrest in Baghdad today at the Supreme Judicial Council."

"We urge all parties to remain calm, abstain from violence, and resolve any political differences through a peaceful process guided by the Iraqi constitution," the statement adder. 

"We also call for those demonstrating to respect the proceedings and property of Iraq's governmental institutions which belong to and serve the Iraqi people," it concluded.

Iraq's judiciary suspended work on Tuesday after supporters of powerful Shi'ite cleric Moqtada 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.

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 10 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.