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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: goldworldnet who wrote (244877)	4/7/2008 4:05:55 PM
From: Brumar89	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 793866

Sadr to disband militia? Reuters: How are the media gonna spin this as a victory for Sadr? Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr will consult senior religious leaders and disband his Mehdi Army militia if they instruct him to, a senior aide said on Monday. The surprise announcement came on the day Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, in a television interview, ordered the Mehdi Army to disband or Sadr's followers would be excluded from Iraqi political life. It was the first time Sadr has offered to disband the Mehdi Army, whose black-masked fighters are principle actors in Iraq's five-year-old war and the main foes of U.S. and Iraqi forces in a recent upsurge in fighting. Senior aide Hassan Zargani said Sadr would seek rulings from Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq's most senior Shi'ite cleric, as well as senior Shi'ite clergy based in Iran, on whether to dissolve the Mehdi Army, and would obey their orders. That effectively puts the militia's fate in the hands of the reclusive Sistani, 77, a cleric revered by all of Iraq's Shi'ite factions and whose edicts carry the force of Islamic law, but who almost never intervenes in politics. "Moqtada al-Sadr has ordered his offices in Najaf and Qom to form a delegation to visit Sistani in Najaf and (other leaders) in Qom to discuss disbanding the Mehdi Army," Zargani said. ... Who knows what the Iranian clerics might say, but Sistani has been a reasonable person in the past. He has an opportunity now to do something for Iraqis that is desperately needed to bring them together. It appears that by pushing a confrontation with Sadr in Basra, Maliki is getting results beyond most peoples wildest dreams. Critics were quick to call the Basra operation a failure, but it is looking more and more like a success that Sun Tsu would find admirable. Posted by Merv prairiepundit.blogspot.com