On Dec. 1, the Iraqi parliament accepted Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi's resignation, bringing his tenure to an end just over a year after he took office. The premier had announced his intention to resign two days earlier, saying his offer to step down was intended to help de-escalate the caustic environment that has developed between the Iraqi government and the country's protest movement. Confrontations between protesters and security forces over the past two months have left 400 Iraqis dead -- including 50 killed Nov. 28 in the southern city of Nasiriyah after security forces used live fire to control demonstrations following the burning of the Iranian consulate in Najaf. Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the top Shiite religious leader in Iraq, withdrew his backing for Abdul-Mahdi's government a day later in a crippling loss of clerical support for the administration....
