Al-Sadr calls for dialogue in Iraq
Middle East Desk Report

BAGHDAD—Aides to Muqtada al-Sadr called Monday for dialogue to resolve a violent standoff with the Iraqi government, saying that the radical Shiite cleric would disband his militia if senior religious leaders ordered it.
Aide Hassan al-Zarqani said from Iran that al-Sadr will consult Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani and other top Shiite clerics if the government continues to pressure al-Sadr to disband the militia or see his candidates banned from upcoming elections.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki warned al-Sadr on Sunday to disband his militia or face a ban from politics. Al-Zarqani said in a telephone interview that al-Sadr “will obey” if al-Sistani, the highest Shiite authority in Iraq, and the other clerics recommend that he do so.
The Sadrists had said earlier that a move to ban them from elections would be unconstitutional. Al-Sadr aide Salah al-Obeidi said al-Maliki doesn’t have the authority to make such a decision because the issue is up to Iraq’s Electoral High Commission and parliament.
“We are calling for dialogue as a way to solve problems among Iraqi groups,” al-Obeidi told AP Television News in the holy city of Najaf. “Al-Sadr’s office affirms that the door is open to reach an understanding regarding these problems.”
The U.S. military, meanwhile, said two more soldiers died in roadside bombings Sunday, raising the day’s American death toll to at least five. The announcement comes a day before the two top U.S. officials in Iraq are scheduled to brief Congress on prospects for the eventual withdrawal of American troops.
Gunbattles also continued Monday in Baghdad’s main Shiite district of Sadr City, a day after fierce clashes broke out when some 1,000 U.S. and Iraqi troops began an operation to push deeper into the Mahdi Army’s largest stronghold.
Iraqi cleric Moqtada al-Sadr offered on Monday to disband his militia if the highest Shi’ite religious authority demand it, a shock announcement at a time when the group is the focus of an upsurge in fighting.
It was the first time Sadr has offered to dissolve the Mehdi Army militia, whose black-masked fighters have been principle actors throughout Iraq’s five-year-old war and the main foes of U.S. and Iraqi forces in widespread battles over recent weeks.
The news came on the day Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, who launched a crackdown on the militia late last month, ordered the Mehdi Army to disband or Sadr’s followers would be excluded from Iraqi political life.
Senior Sadr 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.
“If they order the Mehdi Army to disband, Moqtada al-Sadr and the Sadr movement will obey the orders of the religious leaders,” Zargani told Reuters from neighboring Iran, where U.S. officials say Sadr has spent most of the past year. That puts the spotlight on the reclusive Sistani, 77, a cleric revered by all of Iraq’s Shi’ite factions and whose edicts carry the force of Islamic law.
Sistani, who almost never leaves his house in Najaf, has intervened in Iraqi politics only a handful of times but on each occasion his rulings have been decisive. Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said he could not comment on the statement by Sadr’s aide. Sistani’s spokesman, Hamed al-Khafaf, declined to comment.
The developments come at a pivotal time, two days before Sadr has called a million followers onto the streets for anti-American demonstrations and one day before the top U.S. officials in Iraqi are due to brief Congress on progress. Sadr has a history of allowing his militia to show its strength, then pulling back unexpectedly from confrontation. A move to formally disband the Mehdi Army could help Sadr win prestige among a public exhausted by fighting.
“Sadr’s decision will gain him respect among followers as a leader who is ready to sacrifice for his supporters’ safety,” said Iraqi political science lecturer Hazem al-Nuaimi. But it is hard to imagine the gunmen disappearing from Iraqi neighborhoods any time soon, said Joost Hiltermann, Iraq expert at the International Crisis Group think tank.