ByELIAV BREUER

Protests have been growing over the past weeks in the southern Iraqi city of Basra due to a heat wave and ensuing electricity shortages.

The region is experiencing a heat wave with temperatures consistently reaching 50 degrees Celsius since the beginning of July. Electricity outages have routinely led to violent protests, particularly in southern Iraq, as successive governments failed to address the recurrent issue in recent years. These protests have been suspended since March 2020, due to the coronavirus. However, a confluence of factors have led to their reemergence.

According to KAN reporter Roey Kais, protestors are blaming the government for its energy inefficiencies. A protestor he spoke to claimed that "this is one of Iraq's worst years, as we don't have electricity in nearly the entire country."

According to the protestor, a political activist, "you can see tens of thousands of Iraqi students writing their exams in sweltering heat. It is unimaginable that in the 21st century, we are putting our babies in the refrigerator, and that old people are beginning to die."

The protestor claimed that the main causes of the lack of electricity are governmental corruption and the country's dependency on neighboring Iran. He added that Iran is intentionally supplying Iraq with insufficient energy in order to create economic pressure and force it to speed up payments on loans of up to $5 billion.

According to Kais, in recent years, Iraq signed energy agreements with Saudi Arabia and Egypt in an attempt to turn away from Iran. However, corruption has slowed down the process and Iraq still remains dependent on its eastern neighbor in order to bridge the gap between demand and the domestic energy supply.

The protests, which began in Basra, have spread to other southern towns as well as to Baghdad, and have already brought about the resignation of the Iraqi energy minister, Majed Hantoush.

A bloody anti-corruption protest movement abruptly came to a stop in March 2020 due to the spread of the coronavirus. While the current tensions have remained mostly local, due in part to the stifling heat, there is an increasing sense that the situation can deteriorate. Clashes between American forces and Iranian proxies on Iraqi soil has also become a major problem, and, according to the protestor quoted by Kais, is exacerbating the fear that the political and economic situation in the country will worsen, similar to the crisis in Lebanon.