He gave directions for the completion of projects, and boosting employment and services in Maysan after meeting a delegation of provincial council officials, prominent leaders, and citizens.
“We are listening to them to fulfill the demands of citizens,” read a statement from Abadi’s media office after the meeting that was attended by the Construction and Services Committee.
While making promises to meet the demands of protesters who are fed up with high unemployment and lack of basic services in a country rife with corruption, Abadi stressed the importance of security.
“There can’t be investment without security,” he said. “We stress the importance of security to achieve investment and construction, noting that our forces are still conducting sweeping operations to eliminate the remnants of Daesh [ISIS].”
Abadi pledged that stalled infrastructure projects will be completed – including schools, roads, and a hospital – with the Finance Ministry providing financial backing. Abadi is acting head of the ministry.
Work on these projects should create 7,000 jobs for the province, according to the statement.
Electricity shortages will also be addressed.
“The Ministry of Electricity will commit to providing the designated portion of electricity to Maysan province, while taking into consideration the weather conditions in summer,” reads the statement.
The ministry will also undertake to rehabilitate and repair stations, while preventing unauthorized drawing off the electrical grid.
Another direction that emerged from the meeting stipulates that the Agriculture Ministry will ensure sales of crops and livestock and will consider granting a temporary reprieve for repayments of loans given to farmers.
Abadi also promised that Maysan province will receive its share of Iraq’s petrodollar as it produces oil and gas.
As in his earlier meetings with officials from other provinces, Abadi said incompetency at the provincial level was a major part of the problem.
He has previously met with officials from Basra and Dhi Qar provinces.
Abadi has pledged millions of dollars to pay for infrastructure projects and improve services to meet demands of protesters who have condemned the political elite as “thieves.”
Protests started on July 9 in Iraq’s southern-most Basra and then spread to the other mainly Shiite provinces in the south.
On Thursday, protesters in Basra were dispersed by force after they blocked the road leading to Qarnah 2 oil field. Three protesters were reportedly injured.
Unsatisfied with the government’s response, protests are expected to take place on Friday in eight provinces: Basra, Baghdad, Maysan, Dhi Qar, Karbala, al-Najaf, and al-Muthana.
“The demands of the protesters in the beginning weeks were limited to providing services in the province that lacks the most basic of them. The inability of the government pushed the protesters to demand changes to the ruling system in Iraqi from parliamentary to presidential and to distance local councils and parties that have put a burden on the state budget without providing services for citizens,” Hamzah Abu al-Ward, an organizer of the protests in Diwaniya province, told Rudaw.
The provincial council of Saladin sent a list of demands to Abadi, warning that there will be great protests if he fails to meet the demands that include creating jobs, completing infrastructure projects, helping displaced families return home, building an airport, and replacing Hashd al-Shaabi forces with the national army and police.
Fourteen protesters have died so far, the Iraqi Independent Human Rights Commission announced on Thursday. And authorities have released 757 demonstrators who had been detained.
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