Baghdad-Sana
Baghdad and a number of Iraqi provinces today witnessed the emergence of sporadic demonstrations demanding better services and job opportunities, while a parliamentary source confirmed that the Iraqi parliament will discuss the demands of the demonstrators at its next meeting on Saturday.
The Iraqi News Agency conscious of the Iraqi Joint Operations Department as saying that the security situation under full control despite the presence of some gatherings of demonstrators.
The agency said that the curfew came into force in Baghdad and several provinces to block the way for engineers who want to distort peaceful demonstrations, noting that the imposition of curfew also entered into force in the provinces of Babylon and Diwaniya.
For his part, a parliamentary source said that the Iraqi Council of Representatives will discuss at its meeting next Saturday demonstrations witnessed in Baghdad and several provinces and said that the meeting will also discuss the demands of the demonstrators and ways to meet the legitimate ones.
Meanwhile, an informed source said that representatives of the demonstrators expressed their readiness to meet the invitation of Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi to discuss the legitimate demands.
"The prime minister's office has received many contacts in this regard and things augur well," the source said, adding that the contacts came after the prime minister's office allocated the numbers to be contacted by the protesters' representatives.
The Information Office of the Iraqi Prime Minister announced the continuation of continuous contacts with representatives of peaceful demonstrators to consider legitimate requests.
Earlier in the day, the Iraqi government announced a curfew in Baghdad from 5 a.m. until further notice on the back of the violence that accompanied the demonstrations in the capital and some other provinces.
