Muqtada al-Sadr on Tuesday gave a speech condemning Monday’s violence and ordering his followers to stop even the peaceful protests that he had earlier ordered. Sadr’s followers appeared to obey immediately, stopping their assault on parts of the Green Zone and withdrawing from key sites like the Iraqi Parliament building. Multiple security and oil officials in Basra confirmed that protests also ended at oil and commercial sites around the province, including West Qurna 1, Zubair, Majnoon, the Shuaiba refinery, the Um Qasr port, and Basra International Airport. While Sadr’s speech appears to have succeeded in bringing Iraq back from […]