SHAFAQNA- Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Iraq Met the Grand Ayatollah Sistani this morning, Monday, in the holy city of Najaf Ashraf.
After her talks with the Supreme Religious Authority, Jeanine Antoinette Plasschaert held a press conference and said “The circumstances in Iraq are the reasons for me visiting his eminence, and here in the meeting I had with his eminence, the Marjaiat stressed the following: Zero use of violence against peaceful protesters. As said before but we emphasized and we reiterated again, all perpetrators should be held to account without delay. Arbitrary arrests, kidnappings, beatings, and the killings should stop now. The Marjaiat made it clear that he supports the conduct of serious reforms in a reasonable period of time. And within that context it welcomes the proposal of the United Nations, including the proposal for one consolidated electoral framework. He also expresses his concerns that the political forces are not serious enough to act on these reforms.”
“Additionally, he stresses that the peaceful demonstrators cannot go home without sufficient results. If the three authorities, so I’m referring to the judicial, the executive, and the legislative authorities; if the three authorities are not able or willing to conduct these reforms decisively, there must be a way to think of a different approach,” she added.
“I made it very clear in recent weeks that we think it is extremely important that authorities and the political forces act, because the demands of the protesters are very legitimate. What we clearly witnessed in our conversations with the protesters that there are lots of anger and frustrations about the lack of progress in 16 years and so we have to think forward to address the rising hopes and I sincerely hope that all political forces will see the moment and not be reluctant because demonstrations will flow again if this is not going to address in the right way,” Plasschaert told reporters.