When Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi finally arrived in Basra on Monday, he was clearly not welcome. “You only care about oil and border crossings and not how the people of Basra live,” read banners hung from fences and buildings in the city. “The people of Basra denounce the presence of the outgoing Abadi.”
Days of anti-government demonstrations in southern Iraq’s most populous city left more than a dozen protestors dead, and seem to have all but sealed the fate of Abadi, the U.S.-favored prime minister who has been in office since 2014. The blame for the Basra unrest is being put on Abadi, and other party leaders are calling on him to resign.
Abadi had been hoping for another term in office after the May parliamentary elections, which failed to produce a majority for any of the country’s political parties. The vote has been followed by months of political negotiations among Iraq’s political blocs.
As Abadi stood in Basra blaming those other political blocs for the unrest, pro..