30 August 2022; MEMO: Iran reopened its borders with Iraq a day after closing them, amid the political unrest and violence in Baghdad.
According to Iranian state media, Tehran closed its borders to neighbouring Iraq and halted flights to the country as protests in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, turned violent and resulted in clashes between rival Shia groups.
The violence erupted after Iraqi Shia cleric and political candidate, Muqtada Al-Sadr, yesterday announced his resignation from politics, ten months after his party won the largest share of seats in parliamentary elections, though not enough to secure a majority government.
Following Sadr's announcement, his supporters clashed with militants from rival Shia groups backed by Iran, with the fighting reaching within high-security Green Zone in Baghdad, where Sadrists have occupied the Parliament for weeks. At least dozens were killed in the violence and hundreds have been wounded.
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In a televised address at 1:00 pm, local time today, however, Sadr called on his supporters to cease the fighting, stating that "this is not a revolution [anymore] because it has lost its peaceful character. The spilling of Iraqi blood is forbidden".
The cleric gave them a one-hour deadline to stop and leave the Green Zone, warning that "within 60 minutes, if the Sadrist Movement does not withdraw, including from the sit-in at parliament, then even I will leave the Movement".
His supporters were afterwards seen leaving the zone and refraining from the clashes, prompting the Iraqi military to lift its nationwide curfew that it had imposed. Iranian state television then quoted an Iranian official as announcing that "as security and calm have been restored in Iraq, all borders are open now".
