Iraq PM-designate meets anti-govt protesters

Iraq’s premier-designate Mohammad Allawi has met with dozens of representatives of the protest movement rocking the capital and Shia-majority south since October, a participant in the meetings said yesterday.

The protesters have been demanding an overhaul of the ruling elite and have rejected Allawi as a product of the political class they have been protesting against for months.

When he announced his designation on February 1, Allawi extended a hand to the protesters and urged them to keep up their demonstrations.

“Since the beginning of the week, Mohammad Allawi has held a string of meetings with several dozen representatives of protesters from the eight provinces taking part in the uprising,” said Hisham al-Hashemi, an Iraqi security expert present at the meetings.

According to Hashemi, Allawi pledged to release Iraqis detained for demonstrating, compensate the families of those killed in protest-related violence and work with the United Nations to implement the demonstrators’ demands.

Allawi, 65, served as communications minister twice since the US-led invasion of 2003 but stepped down both times, citing corruption in the government.