In Iraq, a march against the Government was held, with some 1 million participants.
The activist stressed that even the threat of coronavirus infection would not prevent their realization. The Dissenter March is due next week in Baghdad, Basra and Nassiriyah provinces.
Recall that protests in Iraq broke out in October 2019, the protest activity led to the resignation of the government. Demonstrations decreased after the outbreak of coronavirus, but gradually began to gain momentum again.
Hardly surviving the Arab Spring of 2011 and the occupation of much of the country by ISGIL militants in 2014-16, Iraq is now on the verge of a new, equally profound and dramatic collapse. This time several negative factors came together at once: the coronavirus pandemic, the collapse of prices for hydrocarbons, the reduction of Iraq’s quota in OPEC, the ongoing protests of the population due to the high level of corruption of the authorities and, as a result, the protracted government crisis, the impasse in the negotiations of Baghdad with representatives of the Kurdish Autonomous Region, the revival of the terrorist activity of ISIS, the intensified struggle for influence in the country between Washington and Tehran.
And while the Coronavirus pandemic, with all the weakness of the country’s health care system, is still hoping to be overcome with the help of WHO and the entire world community, other factors are still gaining strength and becoming more and more acute.