UN envoy warns that Iraq’s `streets are about to boil over’

By EDITH M. LEDERER
Associated Press

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. special envoy for Iraq is warning the country’s political leaders that “the streets are about to boil over” because of their deadlock and failure to address a host of issues. Among those, she said, are the suffering of ordinary people and armed groups firing rockets with impunity. Jeannine Hennis-Plasschaert told several reporters after briefing the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday that the country and the region cannot afford to go back to October 2019 when protests against political elites over many grievances were met with bullets and tear gas. Hennis-Plasschaert warned that “notorious aspects of Iraqi political life are repeating themselves.”