Hmmmm...
Iraq's Sadr says his militia will support Iran
informationclearinghouse.info
By Reuters
TEHRAN, Jan 22 (Reuters) - Firebrand Iraqi cleric Moqtada al-Sadr has assured Iran that his Shi'ite Muslim militiamen will support the Islamic Republic if it comes under attack, the official IRNA news agency reported on Sunday.
Although the United States and Israel have said they prefer diplomacy as a means to solve a dispute over Iran's atomic programme, they have not ruled out military options.
Washington accuses Iran of seeking nuclear weapons, a charge Tehran denies.
"If neighbouring Islamic countries, including Iran, should come under attack, then the Mehdi Army will support them," Sadr said on a visit to Tehran.
Sadr's Mehdi Army militia rose up against U.S. occupying forces in Iraq in 2004.
In Iran, Sadr has met Ali Larijani, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, and Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki.
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ANALYSIS
Elections boost Shia cleric's clout
newsday.com
WASHINGTON -- One of the biggest winners to emerge last week from the Iraqi elections is Muqtada al-Sadr, the firebrand, anti-American Shia cleric whose followers have killed numerous U.S. and British soldiers.
Based on results announced in Baghdad on Friday, al-Sadr will have at least 27 supporters in the 275-member parliament, and probably more when all the seats are allocated. His party will be one of the largest in the first permanent government since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein.
"Muqtada al-Sadr is a very big winner," said Amatzia Baram, an Iraq scholar at the Wilson Center here who, almost alone among academics in the United States, accurately predicted the election results.
"If they give this bad guy some very important ministries, there is no telling what he will do," Baram said. "It is a very strange situation."
Al-Sadr formed an alliance this time with the other main Shia fundamentalist parties. That coalition surprised almost all U.S. observers by taking nearly half the seats, and is expected to pick a prime minister in the coming week.
Adel Abdul Mahdi, a sophisticated economist who studied in Europe, is the most likely winner of a bitter internal struggle within the Shia United Iraqi Alliance, which consists of al-Sadr, Abdul Mahdi's Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, the Dawa Party and several other groups.
Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari of Dawa is trying desperately to hold onto power and has won important support from al-Sadr, but has been seen widely as ineffectual even by members of his own group.
The U.S. government is said to be, in private, extremely disappointed that the Shia coalition has done so well, but is thought to prefer Abdul Mahdi, who is expected to be more forceful and not as close to Iran as Jaafari.
Al-Sadr is not expected to try to claim top ministries in the new government because his hatred of Americans is so strong he does not want to have to deal with them, according to a high-level source in Abdul Mahdi's Supreme Council. But he will likely take control of Iraq's health care, welfare and human services, bolstering his already strong reputation for serving the poorest Shia and strengthening his popularity.
The main Sunni bloc, which did not participate in the last election, won 44 seats this time, partly at the expense of the two main Kurdish parties, whose number dropped from 75 to 53 seats.
The Shia coalition lost seats, as expected, but still is by far the largest group with 128 seats, down from '. The Iraqi National List slate of former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, a secular Shia heavily favored by the United States, dropped from 40 to 25 seats. Small parties account for the rest.
The new government, which may still take months of haggling to work out, is expected - as was the last one - to be based on an alliance between the religious Shia and the Kurds, with the addition of some Sunnis for the sake of unity.
Al-Sadr led an uprising against U.S. and British forces in April 2004, resulting in bitter, nearly hand-to-hand fighting in the holy city of Najaf. U.S. forces were told to capture him, dead or alive. In some cities in the south, including Basra, his revolt against the British continued until the end of the year.
Privately, British officers blame al-Sadr, more than Sunni insurgents, for most of the deaths of the nearly 100 soldiers it has lost in the south over the past three years.
The Iraqi government and U.S. diplomats alike were amazed to see earlier this month that al-Sadr was greeted warmly in Saudi Arabia, with kisses on both cheeks, by Saudi King Abdullah Ibn Abdul Aziz. Al-Sadr, a minor Shia cleric with a famous father assassinated by Hussein, was until the invasion almost unknown outside Iraq, while Aziz is the most prominent of Sunni Arab leaders.
The king's decision to meet with al-Sadr was seen by the U.S. government - and by Abdul Mahdi's Supreme Council - as a provocation, according to the Supreme Council source, who pointed out that a prominent Supreme Council politician was in Saudi Arabia at the same time but was not received by the king. He accused the Saudis of trying to divide the Shia alliance. |
