Iraq power struggle escalates as protesters block parliament

BAGHDAD — Iraq's political leaders have spent the past 10 months struggling unsuccessfully to form a government as their country slides deeper into political paralysis in the face of growing drought , crippling corruption and crumbling infrastructure.

In June, those talks imploded. And now there is a scramble for power as major Iraqi political factions vie for the upper hand.

Powerful Shia Muslim cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who leads the largest bloc in parliament, walked out of negotiations in frustration, then urged his supporters to take to the streets to get what they wanted. Responding to his call, they set up a tent camp that blocked access to Parliament for more than two weeks to prevent any government from being elected.

This is not the first time that Mr. al-Sadr has resorted to the threat of violence to get his way politically. He led the armed Shiite revolt against the US occupation of Iraq from 2003 to 2009, and US officials say they now fear Iraq could slide back into violence and instability.

< p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Similarly alarming, despite years of US efforts to turn Iraq into an alternative Shiite center of power that would be more Western-oriented than Iran, ‌Mr. Sadr and his Shia political rivals favor a political system that would give more power to clerics on the model of an Iranian-style theocracy.

“We are looking at the beginning of the end for the American-backed political order in Iraq,” said Robert Ford, a former US diplomat in Iraq and now a fellow at Yale University and the Middle East Institute.

For decades, Iraq has teetered from crisis to crisis - a cycle that shows no signs of abating. Following the 2003 US invasion to oust Saddam Hussein, there was a civil war and then the takeover of large parts of the country by the Islamic State.

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