Lawmaker asks Zaidi to visit Basra and meet northern protest leaders

BASRA — A Basra lawmaker urged Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi on Tuesday to visit the governorate and meet leaders of a protest movement in its northern districts, where residents set up a sit-in near the West Qurna 1 oil field on Friday.

Uday Awad, who leads the Sadiqoun parliamentary bloc, wrote on Facebook that the northern districts were expected to see “a mass movement and widespread demonstrations” on Tuesday, “expressing a range of legitimate demands.”

“I call on the prime minister to visit Basra governorate, meet the leaders of this movement and listen directly to their demands,” he wrote.

Awad said the movement’s leaders included “a select group of clerics who answered the call of the nation and the religious authority, alongside young people who are among Iraq’s finest and whose demands deserve to be heard and addressed with responsibility and attention.”

He also praised the Basra Police Command and its chief, Maj. Gen. Ali Mashari, for how they were handling protesters while keeping the governorate secure and stable.

“The moment requires listening to the voice of citizens and dealing with their demands in a national spirit, in a way that strengthens mutual trust and preserves Basra’s security and stability,” Awad wrote.

Protests in northern Basra have been driven by demands over contract employees, jobs for graduates, salaries, infrastructure, public services and water shortages.

Residents of Sadiq district returned to protest sites on Friday and pitched sit-in tents near the entrance to West Qurna 1. They said work on services had stalled and pledged to stay until their demands were met.

Haitham al-Mansouri, who leads the movement in the district, told 964media the protesters wanted work resumed on a bridge linking Sadiq with Ezz al-Din Salim district, jobs for unemployed young people and the rebuilding of the road between Qurna and Basra city, known locally as “Death Street” for its frequent crashes.

Basra Governor Asaad al-Eidani on Sunday rejected any escalation near oil fields after meeting the committee organizing the Sadiq sit-in. In a statement, he said residents had the right to protest within the law and without encroaching on public or private property, but that some demands, including jobs for Basra residents, rested with the federal government rather than the local one.

Eidani said the local government had paid for its service projects in Sadiq from border-crossing revenue.

Protests over jobs and services recur in Basra, Iraq’s main oil-producing governorate. In September, graduates seeking oil sector jobs blocked state oil company sites in Basra on the fourth day of their protests. In February 2025, three protesters were injured in clashes at the entrance to the West Qurna 2 field, also in northern Basra.

Sadiqoun is the political wing of Asaib Ahl al-Haq, an Iran-aligned armed group whose forces operate within the Popular Mobilization Forces. West Qurna 1, one of Iraq’s largest oil fields, has been operated by China’s PetroChina since ExxonMobil left in early 2024.