Officials: Sadr Party Growing Isolated

[unhappycamper]

Officials: Sadr Party Growing Isolated
April 07, 2008
Associated Press

BAGHDAD - Iraq's major Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish parties have closed ranks to force anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr to disband his Mahdi Army militia or leave politics, lawmakers and officials involved in the effort said April 6.

Such a bold move risks a violent backlash by al-Sadr's Shiite militia. But if it succeeds it could cause a major realignment of Iraq's political landscape.

The first step will be adding language to a draft election bill banning parties that operate militias from fielding candidates in provincial balloting this fall, the officials and lawmakers said. The government intends to send the draft to parliament within days and hopes to win approval within weeks.

"We, the Sadrists, are in a predicament," lawmaker Hassan al-Rubaie said April 6. "Even the blocs that had in the past supported us are now against us and we cannot stop them from taking action against us in parliament."

Al-Sadr controls 30 of the 275 parliament seats, a substantial figure but not enough to block legislation.


Rest of article at: http://www.military.com/news/article/officials-sadr-party-growing-isolated.html

[babylonsister]

1. Hmmm. I don't know if this is true or spin. I guess we'll see. nt

[Teaser]

2. Since Sadr's militia is the most popular militia in southern Iraq

this has dubious prospects.

Furthermore, everyone else gets to "keep" their militia. They've just embedded them in the armed forces.

Not gonna work.

[The_Casual_Observer]

3. Officials? The Iraq war is lost, it's only a matter of time before we

walk away from the mess.

[annabanana]

4. Doesn't this kind of depend on what Sistani says to Sadr?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080407/wl_nm/iraq_dc