Yeah.. the Sistani-MAS relationship is rather strange..
But Sistani was brilliant in how he played up that he was allegedly "sick" in London, only to come back in triumph after the Jaysh Al Mahdi forces had been routed in Najaf.. For quite awhile MAS was under house "arrest" and I believe his movements still require some form of approval from Sistani.
Sistani provides him the legitimacy that he lacked by himself, given his youthfulness and extremism. And along with that legitimacy, come legitimacy for the Mahdi Army, one would suspect.. Either that, or Sistani prefers to use them as his "stick" in case either the Badr Corps, or SCIRI get too uppity.. In that, Sistani and MAS have similar interests.
The Ba’th party was supposedly banned from Iraq. However it has Millions of card-carrying members internationally and is strongly associated with other political groups inside and outside of Iraq. Syria is definitely the backbone of the Baath party
One interesting aspect of this seems to be the alignment that some governmental elements in Syria have arrived at with Iran. Given that the predominant religious-ethnic group in charge in Syria, the Alawites, are more religiously similar to the Shi'a, it makes for some very strange bed-fellows, when the Sunni Iraqis are allied with them.
Personally, I opine that that there are elements within Syrian intelligence that side with the Sunni Iraqis, while the overall government is willing to link up strategically with Iran to maintain instability in Iraq so that the US is not able to then turn it's focus upon them.
Hawk |
