Local Iraqi media have said that Brigadier General Esmaeil Ghaani, IRGC Quds Force commander, has held a meeting with Iraq's influential cleric Muqtada al-Sadr in the holy city of Najaf on Tuesday, February 8.

The news was announced in a Facebook post from Sadr’s office, without providing further details.

An informed political source confirmed earlier that Ghaani held intensive meetings with parties in Baghdad in order to resolve the political crisis concerning the formation of a new government.

Back in December, Sadr called for the quick formation of a national government that was "neither eastern nor western.”

The Sadrist Movement said on Saturday it had suspended negotiations on forming a new government and that it would not attend the parliament session on Monday.

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