Iraqi Prime Minister calls emergency amidst demonstrations

Iraq's Shi’ite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki warns of the 'Arab Spring in Iraq' Iraq's Shi’ite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said the country’s parliament holds the responsibility for cancelling laws regarding accountability, justice and the fight against insurgency. He called on the Speaker of the Iraqi Parliament Osama al-Nagifi to hold an emergency session to resolve this latest crisis.
Al-Maliki claimed the government has no constitutional authority to cancel any law the parliament legislates for, he said in a statement on Wednesday. The General Amnesty Law has not been ratified yet and parliament should bear the responsibility for cancelling these laws, he added.
He added that the government is committed to executing the laws passed by the Iraqi parliament, according to the national constitution, while accusing a number of political figures of attempting to mire the government in cancelling these laws.
He called on Iraqi political blocs demanding cancelled laws to submit a draft law to parliament for discussion. “We are following what happened in the various governorates witnessing demonstrations,” he said.
The Iraqi Prime Minister stressed the need to avoid providing an opportunity to armed groups and remnants of the former Ba’athist regime to penetrate demonstrators’ ranks, spreading chaos within Iraq and threatening the country's already fragile national unity.
Nouri al-Maliki also warned Sunni demonstrators to stop protesting against the government which they say discriminates against them.
The move comes as powerful Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr voiced his support for the Sunni protesters.
The hard-line religious leader told reporters in the Shi’ite holy city of Najaf that the demonstrators have the right to protest as long as they are peaceful.
He stopped short of calling for a wider uprising like those that have rippled across the region over the past two years, but warned of further unrest if demands on the street are not met.
"Beware of the Arab Spring in Iraq," the cleric said in a warning to the power-sharing government.
Thousands of protesters have been holding rallies in the western desert province of Anbar and other Sunni strongholds for more than a week.
The demonstrations follow the arrest of bodyguards assigned to the Sunni finance minister, Rafia al-Issawi, though they tap into deeper Sunni grievances of perceived discrimination by al-Maliki's government. The protesters' demands include guarantees of better government services and release of prisoners from Iraqi jails.
Al-Sadr said on Tuesday that al-Maliki "bears full responsibility" for the discontent amongst Iraqis calling for change.
He expressed hope that protesters would not advocate a return to dictatorship or pursue a sectarian agenda.
"As long as the demonstrations are peaceful and don't seek to dismantle Iraq, we are with the protests, and parliament should be with them, not against them," he said.
"The demands of demonstrators are legitimate and popular, so they should be met."
He explained that if it wasn't for protesters carrying pictures of Saddam Hussein, he would have joined the protests himself.
Meanwhile, Massoud Barzani, president of Iraq's Kurdish region, warned against a rupture in Iraqi society, calling all political leaders to act wisely for the interest of Iraq.
More than 50,000 armed security personnel, spread in the centre and south of Iraq to secure the "Forty" visit in Karbala, performed by millions of Shi’ites at the shrine of Hussein bin Ali. Some observers believed this to be a show of the force the Iraqi army, loyal - in the central regions at least - to al-Maliki.
Sheikh Khalid Al Mulla, Head of Iraqi Scholars Association in the South said, "Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has agreed to give special amnesty for prisoners of criminal cases after obtaining the approval of the Presidency of the Republic of Iraq to ratify the pardon.”
According to Al Jazeera news channel, al-Maliki has ordered the release of more than 700 female prisoners, a key demand of demonstrators.