Al-Sadr television interview decries U.S. presence in Iraq

[Daanyeer]

Al-Sadr television interview decries U.S. presence in Iraq

Source: McClatchey
June 8, 2004 Author: Leila Fadel



BAGHDAD, Iraq - In a rare appearance on state-operated Iraqi television, radical anti-American Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada al-Sadr on Thursday called the U.S.-backed government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki "neglectful" and sectarian and blamed Iraq's problems on the U.S. presence in the country.

The tone of his statements weren't surprising. Al-Sadr has been consistently anti-American since his Mahdi Army militia first rebelled against the U.S. presence in 2004. He's also grown increasingly critical of al-Maliki, who came to office last year largely on the strength of al-Sadr's support, and last month al-Sadr withdrew his backers from al-Maliki's government.

But his willingness to sit for an interview that lasted nearly an hour marked a new stage in his efforts to recast himself as a nationalist figure capable of uniting Sunni and Shiite partisans, two weeks after he resurfaced from a months-long absence.

In the interview, al-Sadr said that "the layers of government and parties are turning their backs on the people." He added that the government is only half-hearted in its efforts to serve the people.

He said that Sunnis and Shiites have a common enemy - Sunni extremists, known in Iraqi Arabic as takfir. In Islam, takfir is the act of declaring someone an infidel.

"The enemy of all Islam has become the takfir," al-Sadr said. "Before they were killing Shiites with their car bombs. Now they are killing Sunnis with their car bombs. They have become a common enemy."

Al-Sadr, believed to be in his early 30s, sat before an Iraqi flag and the green Mahdi Army flag for the interview.

He ticked off a laundry list of Iraq's problems - sectarianism, lack of services, lack of security, the Mahdi Army's reputation as a brutal killer of Sunnis. But the culprit was always the same - "the occupation."

Al-Sadr also rejected any interference from Iran, which the U.S. military has accused of supplying elements of the Mahdi Army and other Shiite militias with weapons, training and support. The U.S. military said al-Sadr took refuge in Iran during his absence. Al-Sadr's aides deny that he was outside Iraq.

"I must maintain friendly and good relations with Iran, but nothing else," al-Sadr said.

He said he would never negotiate with American officials, despite assertions last week by Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno, the No. 2 U.S. military commander in Iraq, that the U.S. was interested in opening such talks.

"I refuse any sit-down with the occupation, whether in Iraq or outside," he said.

Many people in Iraq believe al-Sadr is Iraq's most popular political figure, thanks largely to the millions of impoverished Shiites who were devoted to his father, a popular cleric who was assassinated during Saddam Hussein's rule. Al-Sadr has cemented that loyalty with his Mahdi Army, which many Shiites credit with protecting them from Sunni insurgents.

Al-Sadr denied that the Mahdi Army was involved in attacks on Sunnis. The accusation, he said, was a U.S. attempt to tarnish the image of his religious army, which he said serves and protects Sunnis and Shiites alike.

He said other Arab countries need to help end the "suffering of Iraqis" in the interest of their own security.

"We are not in need of anyone. The Arab states are in need of Iraq because security in Iraq is a part of their security," he said. "Now Iraq is a battlefield to defend the Arabs and the Muslims. What we are seeing now from the bloodletting will happen in their countries later."

Al-Sadr's resurgence comes at a time when the Iraq government is under intense pressure to show political progress. U.S. military officials have a Sept. 15 deadline to report on the progress of the current security plan, which increased U.S. forces by nearly 30,000 troops, and to determine whether Iraq's government has met 18 benchmarks, including disarming militias and passing an oil law.