Page 10 - ARUBA TODAY

A10 WORLD NEWS
Monday 21 May 2018

Iraq’s al-Sadr, promising reform, is constrained by Iran

By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA his establishment rivals. “guiding principle.” “We
and PHILIP ISSA Al-Sadr — who is remem- warn any other country
Associated Press bered for leading an insur- that wants to involve itself
BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq’s gency against U.S. forces in Iraqi politics not to cross
Muqtada al-Sadr, the mav- after the 2003 invasion — the Iraqi people,” he said.
erick Shiite cleric whose did not run for a seat him- However, even as al-Sadr
political coalition beat out self and is unlikely to be- is in position to nominate a
Iran’s favored candidates come prime minister, but prime minister and set the
to come in first in national will command a significant political agenda for the
elections, says he wants to number of seats and has next four years, he will find
form a government that already begun informal his choices limited by Iran.
puts Iraqis first. talks about government The Middle East’s pre-emi-
The electoral commission formation. nent Shiite power has a di-
announced early Saturday Salah al-Obeidi, a spokes- rect line with some of Iraq’s
that the militant-turned- man for al-Sadr’s Sa’eroun most powerful politicians,
populist preacher, who has political bloc, told The As- and it is trying to rally them
long spoken out against sociated Press that Iraq’s as a bloc to undercut al-
both Iranian and U.S. influ- sovereignty was going to Sadr. Al-Sadr’s rise threat-
ence in Iraq, had defeated be the new government’s ens Iran’s claim to speak
on behalf of Iraq’s Shiite
majority, a precedent that In this March 27, 2016 file photo, Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr
gives a speech to his followers before entering the highly fortified
could fuel independent Green Zone, in Baghdad, Iraq.
Shiite movements else- Associated Press
where. Also at stake are mander, who spoke on the mer of 2014. With direction
top ministerial posts — polit- condition of anonymity be- from Iran’s Revolutionary
ical appointments that are cause of the sensitivity of Guard, they turned the tide
a source of patronage and the discussions. against the initial advance.
police and military power. Al-Sadr’s relationship with In the years that followed,
Al-Sadr himself has kept a Iran is a complicated one. the militias — coordinat-
relatively low public pro- Though he has maintained ing with U.S.-backed Iraqi
file. But in a public relations close ties with Iran’s po- ground forces — slowly
move that appeared to litical and religious lead- pushed IS fighters back.
be directed at Iran, he ap- ership, in recent years he Iraq declared victory over
peared on Thursday with ri- has denounced the flow the group last year.
val cleric Ammar al-Hakim, of Iranian munitions to Shi- Al-Sadr has said he wants
who has drifted away from ite militias in Iraq, all the the militias absorbed into
Iran’s orbit in recent years, while maintaining his own the national security forces,
to say the two men share so-called Peace Brigades a move Iran would find dif-
similar visions for the next in the holy city of Samarra, ficult to accept.
government. north of Baghdad. Iran is also rankled by al-
Tehran has dispatched its Al-Sadr’s former Mehdi Sadr’s recent overtures to
top regional military com- Army militia, which spear- Saudi Arabia and the Unit-
mander, Gen. Qassem headed an insurgency ed Arab Emirates, which
Soleimani, to pull together against the U.S., clashed are locked in proxy wars
a coalition to counterbal- violently with the Iran- with Tehran in Syria and Ye-
ance al-Sadr, according to backed Badr Organization men. Al-Sadr met with the
an Iraqi Shiite militia com- last decade. crown princes of Saudi Ara-
mander who is familiar with The militias plugged the bia and Abu Dhabi in Au-
the meetings. gaps left by Iraq’s army gust, leading Iran’s hard-
“Iran won’t accept the cre- as soldiers deserted their line Keyhan newspaper to
ation of a Shiite bloc that is posts in the face of the Is- accuse al-Sadr of “selling
a threat to its interests. It’s lamic State group’s light- himself” to the house of
a red line,” said the com- ning campaign in the sum- Saud.q