Latest news with #Tishreen
Al-Ahram Weekly
23-07-2025
- Politics
- Al-Ahram Weekly
Regret for political failures in Iraq - World - Al-Ahram Weekly
Supporters of Iraq's protest Tishreen Movement have been unimpressed by apologies for political failures from MPs In a scene that reopened wounds that have yet to heal, Iraqi MP Alaa Al-Rikabi, one of the prominent faces of the Imtidad Movement, publicly apologised for his failure to fulfill the promises he had made to supporters of the Tishreen (October) uprising this week. His apology came four years after he was elected to Parliament to represent a movement born from the 2019 protests in Iraq, which rallied under the slogan 'We want a Homeland'. In a television appearance, Al-Rikabi said that 'I admit that I failed to fulfill the promises I made to the Tishreen public. We have achieved nothing of what we aspired to do.' However, instead of receiving appreciation, his apology was met with a torrent of anger and accusations from activists and observers. They saw his move as a belated confession that neither absolves him of responsibility nor restores the popular support the protest movement has lost due to political shifts. In October 2019, when Baghdad's Tahrir Square ignited with chants of 'We want a Homeland,' crowds of young people, mostly from impoverished backgrounds, took to the streets and risked their lives to demand reform. They were students, workers, street vendors, and the unemployed from various provinces and social classes in Iraq. Hundreds of them were killed by 'unknown assailants' or the so-called 'third party'. Many activists say that their blood was shed in vain when the uprising was turned into an electoral platform. Observers believe that the real breaking point for the Tishreen Movement was not just when Mustafa Al-Kadhimi ascended to the premiership, riding on the blood of the martyrs, appointing figures affiliated with the protests to official positions, and raising a massive banner on the façade of the Turkish Restaurant building in the square, claiming he would turn it into a museum for the Tishreen revolutionaries, a promise he never fulfilled. The true fracture happened when some Tishreen symbols, including Al-Rikabi, a key figure in the Haboubi Square protests in Nasiriyah in the southern province of Dhi Qar, chose to join the parliamentary game, stepping into a political environment still dominated by the same traditional parties and their laws. Faris Harram, one of the key intellectual voices of the Tishreen Movement, did not hesitate to express his position. In a detailed post following Al-Rikabi's apology, Harram wrote that 'you betrayed Tishreen twice: first, when you insisted on participating in the elections despite knowing the environment was corrupt; and second, when you voted for Mohammed Al-Halbousi as speaker of parliament.' 'I told you back then that you were deluded, and that the 'tent' you wanted to pitch inside parliament would not protect you. Now you've seen with your own eyes how the armed parties' bodyguards almost assaulted you under the parliament's dome.' Harram also revealed a previous meeting with Al-Rikabi in Najaf, where the later admitted that 'we were beginners in politics and didn't know that participating was a mistake.' Nevertheless, Al-Rikabi continued his role in parliament and in the Imtidad Movement, even after losing a significant portion of his supporters in Nasiriyah and other southern cities. Among activists' comments, accusations repeatedly surfaced that most Tishreen's MPs, including Al-Rikabi, had prioritised personal gain over achieving change. Harram wrote that 'the essence of your candidacy was personal benefit, luxury cars, lifetime pensions, while the protest tent inside parliament can go to hell.' Activist Amir Fayadh commented that 'people have lost trust in Tishreen because of the catastrophic failure of its parliamentary representatives.' Murtadha Al-Sayyid added that 'we hoped you'd unite your ranks and set an example of political opposition, but instead you fragmented the public and gave the ruling parties the chance to mock your failure.' Hussam Al-Kaabi said that 'this is the ugliest era in which the energy and sacrifices of youth were exploited. An apology after four years won't feed anyone.' In another critical review of the Tishreen Movement's trajectory, some activists argued that the real mistake was not just participating in the elections but remaining in the protests while knowing that some sought to discredit them. One activist spoke to the Al-Ahram Weekly on condition of anonymity, saying that they should have withdrawn and issued a statement exposing the actions of those behind the 'funded tents' who had damaged the Tishreen uprising, adding that there were genuine Tishreenis, but the funded ones had tarnished the movement's image. 'The mistakes have continued, and until now all we see is theorising. Shame on anyone who betrayed the memory of the poor youth and students who participated in Tishreen and died simply because they wanted a homeland,' he said. The debates have rekindled an old but persistent question: was participating in the elections a betrayal of Tishreen, or was it the boycott that some promoted that allowed the ruling parties to remain in power? Commentator Abdul Amir Al-Majar believes that the boycott was a grave mistake. He commented on Harram's post by saying that 'if we keep waiting for the parties to prepare the arena for us, change won't happen even in a hundred years.' He pointed out that the 2021 elections were a rare opportunity, even if their results were limited. Commentator Alaa Hussein added that 'the boycotters are the ones who betrayed Tishreen, not just Al-Rikabi. If the Tishreen forces had fully participated in the 2021 elections, we'd be talking today about more than 100 MPs capable of breaking the sectarian parties.' However, fellow commentator Yaqoub Al-Iraqi pointed to certain contradictions. 'What about your friends who put an X against Alaa Al-Rikabi's photo because of the elections, then participated themselves in the recent provincial council elections,' he asked. Amid the wave of criticism, some have been asking whether the Tishreen MPs have achieved anything since the elections. According to commentator Mohammed Mubarak, the answer is 'maybe 0.0000000006 per cent, but it's still better than zero.' He pointed to some independent MPs who have tried to break the traditional political mould, such as Amir Al-Maamouri, Mohammed Anouz, and some members of the Ishraqat Kanoun Movement, considering their actions as first steps worth building upon. According to Iraqi human rights organisations, the Tishreen uprising left over 800 people dead and more than 25,000 wounded, including thousands who were permanently disabled, lost limbs, or suffered severe injuries without treatment. Five years after the protests began, the identity of the so-called 'third party' accused of shooting protesters and attacking sit-ins in squares in Baghdad and Nasiriyah remains officially unknown. In the 2021 elections, the electoral law was changed in response to Tishreen's demands, adopting smaller districts instead of a single nationwide constituency. This opened the door for new forces like the Imtidad Movement, the Ishraqat Kanoun, and several independents. But this gain did not last, as Iraq has now returned to a situation that allows the traditional political forces to tighten their grip once again. During his recent apology, Al-Rikabi warned that 'money will dominate the elections scheduled for November.' He cautioned that the political blocs controlling Iraq's fate since 2003 will continue their grip and corruption. The result, according to Tishreen activists, will be a repeated cycle of political failure, while the blood of Iraq's youth will remain suspended in the void without justice and without a new homeland. * A version of this article appears in print in the 24 July, 2025 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly Follow us on: Facebook Instagram Whatsapp Short link:
Memri
30-06-2025
- Politics
- Memri
Islamic Resistance Front In Syria – Formidable In Might Militia: We Have Surface-To-Surface Missiles With Ranges Of Hundreds Of Kilometers; We Will Use Them Against Israel 'Soon'
On June 29, 2025, the Islamic Resistance Front in Syria - Formidable in Might militia posted a message on its official Telegram channel announcing that it possessed surface-to-surface missiles with ranges of hundreds of kilometers, and threatened to use them against Israel "soon," in response to its attacks on civilians and infrastructure facilities. The channel did not mention which attacks it was referring to. Additional Telegram channels affiliated with the militia posted messages in which they wrote that the weapons referred to are from the army of former Syrian president Bashar Assad and that the militia's decision to reveal that it possesses them is "a very clear message," i.e. an overt threat to Israel. The following is a review of posts that refer to the missiles from the Telegram channel of the Islamic Resistance Front in Syria - Formidable in Might militia and additional Telegram channels affiliated with it, that appeared between June 22 and 29, 2025. On June 22, 2025, the Islamic Resistance Front in Syria - Formidable in Might militia posted a message on its Telegram channel saying that it would soon share a taped speech delivered by its Commander-in-Chief Abu Jihad Ridha. The poster that accompanied the announcement shows a black silhouette partially obscuring what appears to be a surface-to-surface missile.[1] Later on the same day, a message on the Al-'Uqab (Eagle) Telegram channel, which is affiliated with the Islamic Resistance Front in Syria - Formidable in Might militia, referred to the poster, stating that the missile depicted is a Tishreen (M-600 surface-to-surface ballistic) missile and that the poster indicates that the organization has "Syrian military capabilities" [i.e. capabilities that are similar to those possessed by former president Assad's Syrian Armed Forces].[2] In his pre-recorded speech, which was posted on June 24, Ridha threatened to attack "every Zionist in Syria and outside it," and declared, "We have the capabilities to reach you and there is no ground border to stop us."[3] On June 29, 2025, the Islamic Resistance Front in Syria - Formidable in Might militia posted a short video on its Telegram channel that shows photographs of surface-to-surface missiles that it claims to possess, including: an Al-Joulan [Golan] 1 missile with a range of 600 km; an Al-Joulan 2 missile with a range of 880 km; a Tishreen [October] missile with a 300 km range; and a Ba's [Courage] missile with a range of 180 km. The first part of the video shows photographs of what appear to be Israeli attacks on urban areas, alongside Hebrew text that reads: "Bombing, destruction, destruction of infrastructures, killing and displacement, this is what you did." Later in the video, photographs of the missiles that are allegedly in the possession of the militia are shown, and their names and the maximum distances they can travel are listed, with text in Hebrew which reads: "Now see the beautiful thing. This is but a small part of what we have." At the end of the video there is an image of what appears to be a countdown timer for an explosive device. When it reaches zero, the image of a large explosion is shown, alongside text in Hebrew that reads: "Ready?" The text in the post that accompanies the video reads in Hebrew: "Ready? The date is close."[4] Meanwhile, the Dad telegram channel, which describes itself as "the Syrian National Media Agency" and is affiliated with the Islamic Resistance Front in Syria - Formidable in Might militia, referred to the video described above and wrote that the militia had shown the Al-Joulan, Tishreen, and Ba's Al-Jalil missiles, including their ranges, and declared: This is "a very clear message" [i.e. to Israel].[5]
Shafaq News
25-06-2025
- Politics
- Shafaq News
Iraq arrests social media activist over viral post
Shafaq News/ On Wednesday, Iraqi authorities arrested activist Abbas al-Ardawi over a social media post alleging that Iraqi radar systems supported Israeli strikes on Iran. Al-Ardawi, a commentator with over 90,000 followers on X and known for backing pro-Tehran factions, claimed in a now-deleted post that radar at the Taji base had assisted Israeli operations. The Defense Ministry, responsible for his arrest, characterized al-Ardawi's statement as incitement, accusing him of defaming the security establishment and spreading unsupported allegations. It stated that while freedom of expression is legally protected, it does not cover content that incites unrest or circulates baseless claims—particularly during periods of heightened regional tension, and urged media professionals and online users to act responsibly in their public messaging. The arrest is one of many cases in Iraq's crackdown targeting dissent. Since the October 2019 Tishreen protest movement, at least 34 activists have been killed and 81 assassination attempts documented, according to a European Union rights assessment. During the same period, Iraqi authorities have carried out an estimated 4,600 arrests linked to protest activity. Rights groups report that many slain activists were targeted by unidentified gunmen, often suspected of ties to armed factions, while prosecutions remain rare, and accountability elusive.
