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"I
hereby announce my final withdrawal," Sadr said in a statement
posted on Twitter, criticising fellow Shi'ite political leaders
for failing to heed his calls for reform.
He did not elaborate on the closure of his offices, but said
that cultural and religious institutions would remain open.
Sadr has previously announced withdrawals from politics or
government and the disbanding of militias loyal to him but
retains widespread control over state institutions and still has
a paramilitary group with thousands of members.
He has often returned to political activity after similar
announcements, although the current political deadlock in Iraq
appears harder to resolve than previous periods of dysfunction.
The current impasse between Sadr and Shi'ite rivals has given
Iraq its longest run without a government.
Sadr's party the Sadrist Bloc came first in an October election,
but he withdrew his lawmakers from parliament in June after he
failed to form a government of his choosing - one where he
threatened to exclude powerful Shi'ite rivals close to Iran.
Supporters of the mercurial cleric then stormed Baghdad's
central government zone. Since then, they have occupied
parliament, halting the process to choose a new president and
prime minister.
Sadr now insists on early elections and the dissolution of
parliament. He says no politician who has been in power since
the U.S. invasion in 2003 can hold office.
Sadr's ally Mustafa al-Kadhimi remains caretaker prime minister.
Monday's announcement raised fears that Sadr's supporters might
escalate their protests without their leader to closely control
them, which could further destabilise Iraq.
The country has struggled to recover since the defeat of Islamic
State in 2017 because political parties have squabbled over
power and the vast oil wealth possessed by Iraq, OPEC's
second-largest producer.
(Reporting John Davison in Baghdad, Amina Ismail in Erbil, Iraq;
Additional reporting by Alaa Swilam; Writing by Lina Najem;
Editing by John Stonestreet and Edmund Blair)
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