NAJAF, Iraq: Furious anti-government youth held their ground in protest squares across Iraq’s south on Sunday, despite the previous evening’s appointment of a prime minister who insists he is an independent.
Mohammad Allawi announced his own nomination as premier on Saturday, which marked exactly four months since the anti-government movement erupted and two months since outgoing prime minister Adel Abdel Mahdi resigned under growing pressure.
Demonstrators had demanded a politically independent successor who had not served in government and for them, ex-communications minister Allawi did not make the cut.
“Mohammad Allawi is rejected, by order of the people!” read a new sign hung in the holy city of Najaf on Sunday.
Young men with their faces wrapped in checkered scarves had spent the night torching car tires in anger at Allawi’s nomination, an AFP reporter in the city said.
Main highways leading out of Najaf and streets within the city were still blocked off with smoldering tires on Sunday morning.
Kut, about 170 kilometers (100 miles) southeast of Baghdad, saw hundreds hit the streets chanting, “If it’s been tried before, it shouldn’t be tried again!”
In Diwaniyah, further south, protesters marched into government buildings to demand they close for the day, while students began sit-ins at schools and universities.
Protesters in Hillah blocked off all roads leading into the city and chanted, “Allawi is not the people’s choice!”
Allawi, named as a consensus candidate after months of political paralysis, now has a month to pull together his cabinet, which will be subject to a vote by parliament.
In his first formal address, he pledged to form a representative government, hold early parliamentary elections and ensure justice for protest-related violence — all key demands of demonstrators.
More than 480 people have died and nearly 30,000 have been wounded since the rallies began on October 1, but few have been held accountable for the bloodshed.
The protests first demanded an end to corruption, better services and jobs for unemployed youth, but they quickly spiraled to calls for a total government overhaul.
Iraqi protesters dig in heels despite new PM-designate
https://arab.news/m9u4k
Iraqi protesters dig in heels despite new PM-designate
- Mohammad Allawi announced his own nomination as premier on Saturday
- Demonstrators had demanded a politically independent successor who had not served in government
Syrian government, Kurds to extend truce: sources to AFP
- No official announcement has yet come from Damascus or SDF, but two sources said truce is to be extended by one month
DAMASCUS: The Syrian government and Kurdish forces have agreed to extend a ceasefire set to expire Saturday, as part of a broader deal on the future of Kurd-majority areas, several sources told AFP.
No official announcement has yet come from Damascus or the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), but two sources said the truce is to be extended by one month.
On Tuesday, Damascus and the SDF agreed to a four-day ceasefire after Kurdish forces relinquished swathes of territory to government forces, which also sent reinforcements to a Kurdish stronghold in the northeast.
A diplomatic source in Damascus told AFP the ceasefire, due to expire on Saturday evening, will be extended “for a period of up to one month at most.”
A Kurdish source close to the negotiations confirmed “the ceasefire has been extended until a mutually acceptable political solution is reached.”
A Syrian official in Damascus said the “agreement is likely to be extended for one month,” adding that one reason is the need to complete the transfer of Daesh group militant detainees from Syria to Iraq.
All sources requested anonymity because they are not allowed to speak to the media.
After the SDF lost large areas to government forces, Washington said it would transfer 7,000 Daesh detainees to prisons in Iraq.
Europeans were among 150 senior IS detainees who were the first to be transferred on Wednesday, two Iraqi security officials told AFP.
The transfer is expected to last several days.
Daesh swept across Syria and Iraq in 2014, but backed by a US-led coalition, the SDF ultimately defeated the group and went on to jail thousands of suspected militants and detain tens of thousands of their relatives.
The truce between Damascus and the Kurds is part of a new understanding over Kurdish-majority areas in Hasakah province, and of a broader deal to integrate the Kurds’ de facto autonomous administration into the state.
Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa’s Islamist forces toppled longtime ruler Bashar Assad in 2024.
The new authorities are seeking to extend state control across Syria, resetting international ties including with the United States, now a key ally.
The Kurdish source said the SDF submitted a proposal to Damascus through US envoy Tom Barrack that would have the government managing border crossings — a key Damascus demand.
It also proposes that Damascus would “allocate part of the economic resources — particularly revenue from border crossings and oil — to the Kurdish-majority areas,” the source added.
Earlier this month, the Syrian army recaptured oil fields, including the country’s largest, while advancing against Kurdish forces.
