Sistani rejects 'interference' in choosing new PM

BAGHDAD - Iraq's top Shiite Muslim cleric said on Friday that a new prime minister must be chosen without foreign interference in an apparent nod to Iranian dominance in the country a week after incumbent Adel Abdul Mahdi said he would resign.

Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani's comments followed reports that a senior Iranian commander had been in Baghdad this week to rally support for a new government that would continue to serve Shiite Iran's interests.

The departure of Abdul Mahdi, whom Tehran had fought to keep at the helm, is a potential blow to Iran after two months of anti-government protests that have increasingly focused anger against what many Iraqis view as Iranian meddling in their politics and institutions.

Sistani, Iraq's most senior Shiite cleric, has long opposed any foreign interference in the country as well as the Iranian model of senior clergy being closely involved in running state institutions.

He only weighs in on politics in times of crisis and holds enormous sway over public opinion.

"We hope a new head of government and its members will be chosen within the constitutional deadline" of 15 days since the resignation was formalised in parliament on Sunday, a representative of Sistani said in his Friday sermon in the holy city of Kerbala.

"It must also take place without any foreign interference," he said, adding that Sistani would not get involved in the process to choose a new government.

The burning of Iran's consulate in the holy city of Najaf, the seat of Iraq's Shiite clergy, and subsequent killings of protesters by security forces in southern cities paved the way for Sistani to withdraw his support for Abdul Mahdi.

Abdul Mahdi pledged to step down on Friday last week after Sistani urged lawmakers to reconsider their support for the government following two months of anti-establishment protests where security forces have killed more than 400 demonstrators.

More than a dozen members of the security forces have been killed in the clashes.

Sistani has repeatedly condemned the killing of unarmed protesters and has also urged demonstrators to remain peaceful and stop saboteurs turning their opposition violent.

Iraq's two main allies, the United States and Iran, have acted as power brokers in Iraq since the 2003 US invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein, through a political system based on brokering consensus among Iraqi political factions and their foreign allies - primarily the US and Iran.

Tehran's allies, however, have mostly dominated state institutions since then. Iranian officials including the powerful commander of its Revolutionary Guards' elite Quds Force, Qassem Soleimani, stepped in to prevent Abdul Mahdi's resignation in October.

Soleimani was reported to be in Baghdad this week.

Abdul Mahdi's government, including himself, will stay on in a caretaker capacity until a new government can be chosen, the prime minister said last week.

President Barham Salih officially has 15 days - until Dec. 16 - to name a new premier tasked with forming a government that would be approved by parliament up to a month later.

Iraqi lawmakers say they will then move to hold a general election next year. 

Lawmakers made headway in passing a key reform bill to change the membership of Iraq's controversial Independent High Electoral Commission, the body tasked with overseeing polls, in a session Thursday night. Anti-government protesters consider IHEC a corrupt and partisan institution and its commissioners working in favor of political parties. The new law seeks to select commissioners primarily from the judiciary.

Thousands of anti-government protesters from across southern Iraq joined demonstrators in Baghdad's Tahrir Square, the epicenter of the protest movement in the capital, hours after Sistani's sermon, according to security officials.

Protesters from across southern Iraqi provinces marched on Tahrir Square, including from Dhi Qar, Diwanieh, Karbala, Najaf, Babylon and Missan, security officials said, chanting the slogan “Sistani, we are his soldiers.”

Friday's protests came after over a dozen people were attacked with knives the previous day in Tahrir square. The attacks occurred just as demonstrators supportive of political parties and Iran-backed militias withdrew from the area. The perpetrators, who wore plainclothes, were not immediately known.

At least 400 people have died since the leaderless uprising shook Iraq on Oct. 1, with thousands of Iraqis taking to the streets in Baghdad and the predominantly Shiite southern Iraq decrying corruption, poor services, lack of jobs and calling for an end to the political system that was imposed after the 2003 US invasion.

Protesters complain that without a new, fully representative electoral law and unbiased electoral commission, a snap vote will change nothing and keep veteran, corrupt politicians in power.