TEHRAN (Iran News) – Iran’s consulate in Najaf has resumed its activities after about two months of a halt due to the ransack and arson attacks by rioters in November.

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“After achieving the intended aim, we pulled out from US Embassy triumphantly,” Fadhil al-Gezzi, one of the Iraqi protesters, told AP.

“We rubbed America’s nose in the dirt,” he added.

Helicopters of US Marines had arrived overnight to help guard the main area of the embassy complex. US forces fired tear gas and rubber bullets at the protesters.

On Sunday, US forces conducted drone strikes on a number of Kata’ib Hezbollah bases in Iraq’s western Anbar province, killing at least 25 individuals and leaving another 51 injured, according to the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU).

Following the strikes, the Pentagon issued a statement saying that it had targeted three locations of the Iraqi fighters in Iraq and two in Syria in response to alleged attacks targeting American forces.

Kata’ib Hezbollah is part of the PMU. The PMU, also known as Hashd al-Sha’abi, played a key role in defeating the Daesh terrorist group that had occupied parts of Iraq since 2014.

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Asked about the possibility of tensions spiraling into a war with Iran, Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida, “Do I want to? No. I want to have peace. I like peace. And Iran should want to have peace more than anybody. So I don’t see that happening,” Reuters reported.

In response to US accusations, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman called on the White House to quit its destructive policies in the region.

“The surprising impudence of the American authorities is at such a level that after slaughtering at least 25 people, wounding many Iraqi people, inflicting financial damages on Iraq and violating the country’s national sovereignty and territorial integrity, they (Americans) are now blaming the Islamic Republic of Iran for the protests from the Iraqi people against their own ferocious measures in a blatant and cheap act of pinning the blame on others,” Abbas Mousavi said.

On Sunday, US forces conducted drone strikes on a number of Kata’ib Hezbollah bases in Iraq’s western Anbar province, killing at least 25 individuals and leaving another 51 injured, according to the PMU (Popular Mobilization Units).

Following the strikes, the Pentagon issued a statement saying that it had targeted three locations of the Iraqi fighters in Iraq and two in Syria in response to alleged attacks targeting American forces.

Kata’ib Hezbollah is part of the PMU. The PMU, also known as Hashd al-Sha’abi, played a key role in defeating the Daesh terrorist group that had occupied parts of Iraq since 2014.

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TEHRAN (Iran News) – Up to 4,000 forces of the US troops have been ordered to deploy to the Middle East region following mass protests outside the US embassy by Iraqi protesters infuriated over Washington’s recent deadly military aggression on the Arab country.

The US Army’s 82nd Airborne Division’s alert brigade of roughly 4,000 paratroopers, known as the Deployment Ready Brigade (DRB), has been issued orders to prepare troops for possible deployment in the days ahead in Middle East countries like Kuwait, three US defense officials told Fox News on Tuesday.

At least 500 paratroopers are already making their way to Kuwait, the officials added.

Earlier in the day, US Defense Secretary Mark Esper said in a statement that at least 750 paratroopers were set to swiftly deploy to the region.

Esper added that additional forces from the Immediate Response Force (IRF) were prepared to deploy over the next several days.

“This deployment is an appropriate and precautionary action taken in response to increased threat levels against US personnel and facilities, such as we witnessed in Baghdad today,” The US defense Secretary said.

The US embassy in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad was evacuated on Tuesday after thousands of angry demonstrators gathered outside the gates of the compound to condemn Washington’s fatal military aggression that targeted Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) on Sunday.

The protesters held up signs calling for the US mission to be shut down and for the parliament to order US forces to leave Iraq.

American forces deployed inside the compound fired tear gas, flashbangs and stun grenades to disperse the crowd, however, the Iraqi protesters breached the outer wall of the high-security compound, throwing bricks and stones at the surveillance cameras around the building.

Reacting to the developments in Iraq, US President Donald Trump accused Tehran of being behind the mass protests outside the US embassy in Baghdad.

Trump issued what he called a threat against Iran, saying in a tweet that Tehran will be held fully responsible for any US lives lost in Iraq and claimed Iran would pay a “big price” in case US facilities are damaged or its forces are attacked in the Arab country.

Rejecting the US accusations, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Seyyed Abbas Mousavi said Washington should abandon its destructive policies in the region and warned US officials against taking any uncalculated action.

Iraqi President Barham Saleh called on protesters to avoid any escalation and withdraw from the embassy’s vicinity.

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In a statement on Tuesday, Abbas Mousavi dismissed the “bogus” allegations that the American officials have made against Iran over the recent developments in Iraq and called US initiatives as destructive regional policies.

“The surprising impudence of the American authorities is at such a level that after slaughtering at least 25 people, wounding many Iraqi people, inflicting financial damages on Iraq and violating the country’s national sovereignty and territorial integrity, they (Americans) are now blaming the Islamic Republic of Iran for the protests from the Iraqi people against their own ferocious measures in a blatant and cheap act of pinning the blame on others,” Mousavi said.

Such allegations leveled by the US amount to an insult to the people of Iraq, the Iranian spokesman said, asking the US officials how and with what logic they expect the Iraqi nation to remain silent about such extensive crimes.

“On the one hand, the Americans have ignored the Iraqi nation’s liberality and pursuit of independence, and on the other hand, they have forgotten their role in supporting Saddam and in creating Daesh and the consequent massacre and depredation of the Iraqi people, and have apparently failed to remember that they are still deemed by the people of Iraq to be ‘occupiers’,” the spokesman added.

He went on to dismiss the accusations and, warning Washington against showing any thoughtless and wrong reaction in their calculations, called on the White House to reconsider its destructive policies on the region.

On Sunday, US forces conducted drone strikes on a number of Kata’ib Hezbollah bases in Iraq’s western Anbar province, killing at least 25 individuals and leaving another 51 injured, according to the PMU (Popular Mobilization Units).

Following the strikes, the Pentagon issued a statement saying that it had targeted three locations of the Iraqi fighters in Iraq and two in Syria in response to alleged attacks targeting American forces.

Kata’ib Hezbollah is part of the PMU. The PMU, also known as Hashd al-Sha’abi, played a key role in defeating the Daesh terrorist group that had occupied parts of Iraq since 2014.

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TEHRAN (Iran News) – Several thousand protesters irate over US airstrikes on Iraq staged a demonstration outside of the US Embassy in Baghdad on Tuesday, hurling stones as security forces and embassy guards hit back with stun grenades and tear gas.

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The law consists of 50 articles that were passed and agreed upon by all the members of the parliament. Iran News quotes the report of Tehran Times.

This is while that, previously, Iraqi parliamentarians had passed just some parts and articles of the law. Now, by the passage of the new election law, some previous mechanisms in the election have been removed and replaced with new ones.

The law consists of nine chapters, as follows: (I) Definitions and purposes; (II) The right to elect; (III) The right to nominate; (IV) Electoral districts; (V) Electoral system; (VI) Voter resignation; (VII) Electoral campaign; (VIII) Judicial rules (IX) General rules.

The fact is that the most important and prominent features of the new electoral law lie in Articles 15 and 16. What these articles refer to is, in fact, development in electoral mechanisms, which did not exist before, but now, with the passage of the new law, will be applied to all future elections. Experts and observers in the Iraqi political scene refer to Articles 15 and 16 as the “spirit of the new law”.

According to the articles, the new election law allows voters to vote for specific candidates instead of party lists, with each candidate representing an electoral district than a province. Therefore, experts believe that the approval of the articles will increase the chances of individuals to run for parliament.

Under the law, the country will be divided into various electoral districts based on the data provided by the Ministry of Planning, and Iraqi voters elect individual lawmakers instead of choosing from party lists and have each member of parliament represent a certain electoral district instead of groups of legislators representing entire provinces.

The new law states that each province with a population of more than 100,000 is considered as an electoral district, while provinces with a population of less than 100,000 constitute an electoral district along with neighboring provinces.

The new election law requires that running for parliament individually should be conducted in an electoral district, not through electoral lists, and the candidate who wins the most votes will be declared the winner of the election. Another point in the law is the allocation of at least 25% of the seats in the parliament to women.

It can be concluded that one of the obvious developments of the Iraqi election law is the change in the electoral mechanism from a list approach to individual one. This means that individuals will have more chances to enter the parliament compared to past elections rather than those who are affiliated with political parties and groups.

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The new election law changes each of the Iraq 18 provinces into several electoral districts, with one legislator elected per 100,000 people, AP reported.

It also prevents parties from running on unified lists, which in the past has helped them easily sweep all the seats in a specific province. Instead, seats will go to whoever gets the most votes in the electoral districts.

Drafting a new election law has been a key demand for the hundreds of protesters who’ve taken to the streets in Baghdad and south since Oct. 1.

The current election law — in place for over a decade — has consistently given a majority of seats in the legislature to the political groups shunned by the protest movement.

Like the previous law, the new one allocates at least a quarter of the parliament’s seats to women. A quota is also reserved for the country’s religious minorities, including Christians and Yazidis.

Most Kurdish and some Sunni Arab legislators boycotted Tuesday’s meeting in opposition to changing the law.

Last month, Iraq’s Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani emphasized his support for the demonstrators. He called for a new election law that would restore public confidence in the system and give voters the opportunity to bring “new faces” to power.

Iraq’s 329-member parliament was elected in May 2018. The vote is held every four years, but the protesters have been demanding early elections.

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TEHRAN (Iran News) – Iraq’s Parliament accepted the Iraqi PM, Adel Abdel Mahdi, resignation on Sunday, after two months of violent unrest that have left more than 420 people dead.

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Iraqi government spokesman Saad al-Hadithi told the official Iraqi News Agency on Saturday that a special central court, formed in coordination between executive and judiciary bodies, deals with important corruption cases, involving the prosecution of top officials.

Hadithi added that the court has ordered investigative bodies in the courts of appeal nationwide to summon, issue arrest warrants and seize the assets of anyone found guilty of corruption.

He further highlighted that dozens of subpoenas have been issued, detentions have taken place and even prison sentences have been handed down to senior officials at the levels of ministers, governors, lawmakers, and members of provincial councils.

“Work is underway in this regard, and other relevant decisions will be made within the next few days,” Hadithi pointed out.

On October 11, the Iraqi Supreme Anti-Corruption Council said in a statement that nine high-ranking officials had been referred to the judiciary to be prosecuted on charges of corruption.

The senior officials included former ministers and former provincial governors, according to the statement.

Iraqi PM submits resignation to parliament

Meanwhile, Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi has submitted his resignation, following weeks of protests demanding he steps down.

An unnamed parliamentary source told Arabic-language al-Sumaria television network that the premier had handed his letter of resignation to the legislature.

Abdul-Mahdi had announced in a statement on Friday that he will submit his resignation to parliament amid anti-government demonstrations.

“I will submit to parliament an official memorandum resigning from the current prime minister so that parliament can review its choices,” he said.

Earlier on Friday, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani had urged lawmakers to reconsider their support for the government.

“We call upon the House of Representatives from which this current government emerged to reconsider its options in that regard,” Ayatollah Sistani said in a statement read out by his representative Abdul Mahdi al-Karbalaei during a weekly sermon in the holy city of Karbala.

Abdul-Mahdi said he had “listened with great concern” to the sermon, and made his decision in response to the revered cleric’s call and in order to “facilitate and hasten its fulfillment as soon as possible.”

Nearly two months of protests have rocked primarily the capital city of Baghdad and southern areas of Iraq.

The protesters have expressed frustration with the failing economy and have demanded political and anti-corruption reforms.

The rallies have, however, turned into violent confrontations on numerous occasions, with reports alleging that certain foreign-backed elements have been seeking to wreak havoc in the country.

Since October 1, more than 300 people have been killed in the country, according to the Iraqi parliament’s human rights commission.

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