BASRA: Road access to Iraq’s southern Umm Qasr commodities port was restored yesterday following a two-day closure by protesters after the authorities promised to create new jobs, a port company spokesman and port workers said.
Thousands of Iraqis have protested in recent weeks in Baghdad and southern Iraqi cities, calling for jobs, government services and reforms of the judiciary, parliament and local governing bodies.
At Umm Qasr, negotiations with security officials and the director of the state-run General Company for Ports of Iraq resulted in a pledge to create up to 75 new jobs, said company spokesman Anmar al-Safi.
Dozens of demonstrators, who had set up tents in front of the port’s two main gates, agreed to let trucks pass and employees enter the facility, Safi and workers said. The harbour near the oil-exporting city of Basra receives grain shipments and heavy equipment used in the oil industry, but does not export crude oil.
Nearly a third of Iraq’s territory has fallen to Islamic State militants over the past year and the central government faces a financial crisis from the collapsing price of its oil exports.
Demonstrations began last month in response to power cuts amid a sweltering heat wave. Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has since launched a campaign of major reforms.
The initiative is the biggest move yet by Abadi to strengthen his hand. Abadi sacked a third of his cabinet last week, reducing the number of ministers to 22 by eliminating positions or combining some ministries with others.
He earlier eliminated Iraq’s three vice president positions, cut politicians’ security details and other perks, encouraged corruption investigations and gave himself the power to fire provincial governors and regional officials.
The moves, aimed at reducing corruption and incompetence which critics say have made Iraq nearly ungovernable, followed a call by the country’s leading Shia cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani to “strike with an iron fist” against corruption.
On Friday Sistani again backed Abadi’s reforms and said they should focus on the judiciary.
“The steps of reform must be carried out according to legal procedures so that those who are affected have no room to file complaints to courts to have them annulled ... which may reduce these steps to mere ink on paper,” Sistani said in a sermon delivered by his aide Ahmed al-Safi.
Reuters
