What Is The Truth about The Statement Attributed To Baha al-Araji Regarding The Reasons For Postponing The Saturday Demonstration That al-Sadr Called For?

2022/08/19 06:35 pm
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A piece of news circulated on social media platforms saying the following: “Baha al-Araji: I would explain Al-Sadr’s decision to postpone the demonstration that was scheduled for his supporters on Saturday for two reasons. The first is the laziness and inactivity of the movement audience due to the repeated demonstrations and ongoing strikes to no avail. The second reason is the resignation of the Finance Minister, who had secrets in his pocket. and If they were to be revealed to the public, it would have been the final nail in the coffin of the movement, but he chose to be calm and to preserve the reputation of the reform slogan.”

The Truth:

By searching to verify this news, we did not find any source to prove that the former Deputy Prime Minister (Baha al-Araji) made such a statement through his personal account on Twitter or in a TV interview with him, and none of the reliable local media agencies reported such a statement about al-Araji.

It is reported that the leader of the Sadrist movement (Muqtada al-Sadr) had called on August 13, 2022, in a statement posted through the account of (Salih Mohammed al-Iraqi), also known as (The Leader’s Secretary) who is close to him, for a united million-strong demonstration from all Iraqi governates. In another statement, the Leader's Secretary announced that the scheduled date for it was Saturday, August 20, 2022, before Al-Sadr announced, through a tweet on his Twitter account, posted on August 16, 2022, that the demonstration would be postponed until further notice). During the days that followed the announcement of the postponement of the demonstration, Araji appeared in a television interview on the program (Alqarar Lakum), which is aired on (Dijlah) channel on August 16, 2022, in which he stated the following:

“Today, Al-Sadr's statement to postpone the demonstrations is evidence that His Eminence, Al-Sayyid is not different from others, but he is at the forefront of the dialogue.”

In response to Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi's call for a national dialogue for political leaders to end the political block, it was held at the government palace on Wednesday, August 17, 2022, but no representative of the Sadrist movement attended.

It should also be noted that Al-Sadr’s tweet in which he announced the decision to postpone the demonstrations was posted before the Council of Ministers session, during which the Finance Minister (Ali Allawi) submitted his resignation to Al-Kadhimi on Tuesday, August 16, 2022.

Several statements have been circulating in the recent period attributed to al-Araji. Upon verification, they turn out to be fabricated, and we have previously clarified the truth of a number of them.

What do you know about Baha al-Araji?

Baha Hussein Ali Kamal al-Araji, held several roles in the Iraqi government, including Member of the Iraqi National Assembly, head of the Independent National Bloc in the National Assembly and its spokesperson, Spokesman of the Iraqi Constitution Writing Committee, Member of Parliament, and Chairman of the Legal Committee for the first cycle 2006-2010, Member of Parliament Chairman of the Integrity Committee for the second cycle 2010-2014.

Al-Araji also held the position of head of the Liberal Parliamentary bloc for two consecutive cycles and was a member of the House of Representatives in the third cycle of 2014-2018. He was chosen as deputy prime minister in the session to grant confidence to the government in the fifth session on September 8, 2014, and head of the government energy committee. He submitted his resignation from his position in 2015.

EDIT NOTE: We've Edited at 9:30 pm on August 19, 2022, we edited the article and amended the date of the following sentence (the Leader's Secretary announced that the scheduled date for it was Saturday, August 18, 2022) to (the Leader's Secretary announced that the scheduled date for it was Saturday, August 20, 2022)