BAGHDAD, Iraq – Iraqi Army SWAT teams deployed across Baghdad on Thursday, amid mounting tensions over a possible showdown between Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar Abadi and firebrand Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. Meanwhile, Abadi arrived at the Iraqi parliament in the afternoon, where he is expected to announce anticipated reforms that include a government reshuffle. Rudaw correspondent in Baghdad Hevidar Ahmed said that security measures were tightened as the SWAT forces fanned across the capital. The army’s elite Golden Force entered the highly fortified Green Zone, where Sadr has been staging a sit-in since Sunday, demanding that Abadi start government reforms immediately. Many military vehicles were inside the Green Zone, in anticipation that more pro-Sadr demonstrators would try to enter the Green Zone, which houses government buildings and foreign embassies. “We were supposed to start the meeting at 10, but Abadi hasn’t showed up yet,” Ahmad Haji Rashid, a Kurdish law maker in the Iraqi parliament, told Rudaw about an hour after the parliament had begun. Two days ago, Abadi pledged he would announce a cabinet reshuffle on Thursday. But Sadr has been pressuring him to implement a wider reform package that would include replacing several ministers with apolitical technocrats, in a bid to eliminate patronage and corruption. Sadr had warned Abadi to "stop giving futile promises" and start with grassroots government reforms if he wants to avoid impeachment. "We advise the prime minister to stop giving futile promises," Sadr said in a message, convoyed by an official from his Sadrist Movement before supporters in the Green Zone. He has also warned Abadi not to "blow your anger on peaceful demonstrators, since they have been legally waging their opposition. Rather, he better blow his anger at the corrupt” officials.
