Protests continued for the sixth day across various parts of Iraq’s southern Basra province, with the government failing to provide realistic solutions to restore order to the streets.

Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi arrived in Basra July 13, directly from Brussels where he had attended an international meeting of states participating in the coalition against the Islamic State (IS) on July 12. This was one of the protesters' demands: to see the prime minister in the province so that they could discuss their demands with him face to face.

Leader of the Bani Tamim clan (one of Basra’s largest tribes) Muzahim al-Tamimi, whose sons participated in the protests, published a statement on his Facebook page calling on the prime minister to "return immediately [from Brussels] to address the people of Basra directly … and to invite large corporations to undertake major projects [and] establish a power station and desalination plant, while at the same time seizing the opportunity to partially eliminate unemployment and accelerate the transferral of Basra’s investment refinery to the Fao [refinery project].”

Tamimi said when protesters see that the government is serious, they will return to calm. Yet there is no sign of calm among the protesters in Basra. On the contrary, the protests are spreading across the country, as hundreds of protesters stormed Najaf's international airport on Friday and others surrounded the governor's house in the southern city of Nasiriyah on the same day.