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US installed system in Iraq, deep-rooted problem: Activist

Sunday, 01 May 2016 2:31 PM [ Last Update: Sunday, 01 May 2016 2:29 PM ]

Iraqi protesters open a breach in a concrete wall surrounding the parliament after breaking into Baghdad's heavily fortified "Green Zone" on April 30, 2016. (AFP photo)

Press TV has interviewed Sabah Jawad, director of Iraqi Democrats Against Occupation in London, to discuss the political situation in Iraq.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: In your perspective, how is the political turmoil stemming from a failure to reach a consensus on a new cabinet in Iraq will transpire from here on?

Jawad: I think the crisis in Iraq is much deeper than a new cabinet whether it is technocrat or politicians. I think the crisis in Iraq is deep-rooted and that is because when the American occupation started in 2003, they created a political system based on sectarian division and cemented this action by a constitution and we see the end result of this constitution and political turmoil in Iraq because of that.

The Americans did not want to treat Iraq as a nation state. They wanted to treat Iraqis as Shias, Sunnis, Kurds and so on, many nations in one state, and we see the consequences of that. The protests might take the form of lack of services or against corruption and so on but the deep-rooted problem actually is the constitution and the political system installed by the Americans.

The mass movement now we see, and there are genuine mass movements and increasing by numbers by the days despite the leadership of such protesters ... and nobody basically knows whether the next move will be, you have to sometimes flip a coin to guess what the action of Muqtada al-Sadr for example will be, but this is a mass movement, a mass discontent against the regime, against corruption, against services, against the collapse of the Iraqi economy and the looting of billions of dollars by the ministers and nobody being brought to justice because of that which accumulated over the years, for the past 13 years, and now we see this public revolt and disgust against the regime, the ministers, the government officials across the board. It is not only against parliament but also against presidency, against the government, the cabinet, against the judiciary, against all state institutions.

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