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Moqtada al-Sadr throws Iraqi unity talks
into disarray
20.2.2006
By Michael Howard
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Cleric rejects
constitution and calls for troops to go
Election success enables Shias to 'flex muscles'
Efforts to form a government of national unity in
Iraq are floundering amid concerns from Kurds, Sunni
Arabs and secularists at the "undue influence"
within the ruling Shia alliance of the militant
anti-western cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.
The 33-year old firebrand - whose support was
crucial to last week's controversial re-nomination
of the prime minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari - threw the
nascent talks into disarray at the weekend, saying
he opposed Iraq's new federal constitution and
repeating calls for the swift withdrawal of US and
other foreign forces. |
Shiite cleric Moktada
al-Sadr |
"I reject this constitution which calls for
sectarianism and there is nothing good in this
constitution at all," he told al-Jazeera television
in a rare interview, conducted in Jordan. He added
that the withdrawal of foreign forces "should be the
priority of the future Iraqi government."
The tortuous negotiations over policies and posts in
the new government begin in earnest this week, but
most say it will take weeks if not months until
Iraqis see the first full-term administration since
the fall of Saddam. Mr Sadr's supporters also ruled
out the inclusion of the former prime minister Ayad
Allawi in any future government.
"[Allawi's] participation in government is a red
line for the Sadr stream," said Fatah al-Sheikh, a
pro-Sadr member of the national assembly. Mr Sadr's
followers say they cannot forgive Mr Allawi for the
bloody assault during his term in office on the al
Mahdi army in the sacred Shia city of Najaf.
The blunt statements by Mr Sadr are at odds with his
partners and rivals in the United Iraqi Alliance (UIA),
the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (Sciri),
as well as with the powerful Kurdish bloc - the
UIA's junior coalition allies. Both Sciri and the
Kurds back the constitution and rule out a firm date
for troop withdrawal. The Kurds say they will not
join any administration unless it includes Mr
Allawi's list. "We believe there will be no
political stability until all the Iraqi
constituencies are included," said Mahmoud Othman, a
member of the Kurdish negotiating committee. "That's
why the Kurdish alliance are working on a government
that includes the the Sunni Arabs as well as Allawi."
Iraq's leading non-Shia parties are also mounting a
last-minute bid to block the reappointment of
Ibrahim al-Jaafari as prime minister, citing his
previous ineffectiveness in office and his new
"political debt" to Mr Sadr.
"The al-Sadr stream is now very powerful within the
United Iraqi Alliance and is now flexing its
muscles, trying to have things their way," said an
aide to the Iraqi president, Jalal Talabani. "They
were the only ones apart from Dawa [Jaafari's party]
who supported his candidature. And Jaafari owes them
a lot."
After launching two failed uprisings against the
Americans in Baghdad and cities across southern Iraq
in 2004, Mr Sadr and his al-Mahdi militia, who are
popular among the young urban Shia poor, have
regrouped and joined the political process. That
decision more than paid off in December's elections,
which saw Sadrists emerge as the largest single
party within the UIA. His followers won 32 of 128
seats gained by the UIA and as a reward for
supporting a Jaafari premiership they are expected
to get five cabinet posts in the next government.
But the young cleric's apparently inexorable rise
within the Shia group has sent shockwaves through
the country's non-Shia political establishment.
Although most agree it is better to have the
unpredictable Mr Sadr within the political
mainstream, his extreme religious views and
nationalist rhetoric - designed in part to reach out
to disaffected Sunnis - are likely to do little to
heal the country's gaping ethnic and sectarian
wounds.
Khaled Salih, an Iraq analyst at the University of
Denmark, said: "It is fruitless to search for a
unifying figure in Iraq. All you can hope for is
that the various centres of power that are emerging
- Kurds, Shia, Sunnis - can find a relatively
peaceful way to share that power. Democracy will
come later."
www.guardian.co.uk
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