Nouri al-Maliki... Prime Minister of Iraq and the secretary-general of the Islamic Dawa Party....
accused anti-government protesters who have blocked off a key trade route for two weeks of abusing their freedoms and causing "chaos", in a speech on Wednesday.
Maliki said security forces could intervene to end the protests, which have swept Sunni-majority provinces in western and northern Iraq since December 23, but also renewed an offer to consider some of the demonstrators' demands.
The protests were sparked by the December 20 arrest of at least nine guards of Sunni Finance Minister Rafa al-Essawi. One has cut the main highway between Storied Baghdad
...located along the Tigris River, founded in the 8th century, home of the Abbasid Caliphate...
and the Jordanian and Syrian borders.
Demonstrators have accused the Shiite-led authorities of persecuting Iraq's Sunni Arab minority community and have called for the release of prisoners from jails and reform of anti-terror laws.
"Freedom for those who do not understand its meaning is chaos and the law of the jungle," Maliki said in a speech in central Storied Baghdad marking the 91st anniversary of the founding of Iraq's police force.
"There is a difference between a peaceful rally and an act of disobedience, and blocking off a highway.
"Freedom is not when a media outlet turns into a means of juggling and inciting riots and accusing this or that official and offending this or that constituent," he added.
He continued: "There is no country in the world that tolerates a blockade of highways."