Iraqi cleric meets with PM after beginning Green Zone sit-in

Influential Iraqi Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr met with Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi on March 27 night after beginning a sit-in in Baghdad's highly fortified Green Zone intended to be a show of force following his calls to combat government corruption.

Earlier in the day security forces stepped aside to allow al-Sadr to enter the Green Zone after weeks of protests in the Iraqi capital. Al-Sadr has repeatedly called on al-Abadi to enact sweeping economic and political reforms.
     
"I am a representative of the people and will enter the (Green Zone)," al-Sadr told hundreds of his supporters gathered outside the compound's walls, asking his followers to stay outside and remain peaceful.
     
As al-Sadr walked through a checkpoint to enter the Green Zone, officials in charge of the compound's security greeted the cleric with kisses and provided him with a chair. Al-Sadr was accompanied by his personal security detail and the leader of his Shiite militia, Sarayat al-Salam. After he began his sit-in, al-Sadr's supporters started erecting tents and laying down mattresses.
     
In February, al-Sadr demanded Iraqi politicians be replaced with more technocrats and that the country's powerful Shiite militias be incorporated into the defense and interior ministries.
     
After weeks of growing protests in the Iraqi capital, al-Sadr repeatedly threatened to storm the compound if his demands for government overhaul were not met. Baghdad's Green Zone, encircled by blast walls and razor wire, is closed to most Iraqis and houses the country's political elite as well as most of the city's foreign embassies. Al-Sadr has called it a "bastion" of corruption.
     
Most Iraqis blame the country's politicians for the graft...