Shiites: Cleric Won't Support Coalition

[cal04]

Shiite lawmakers said Iraq's most revered Shiite cleric withheld support Saturday for a U.S.-backed plan to build a coalition across sectarian lines, jeopardizing hopes that such a show of political unity could help stem the country's deadly violence.

Members of the United Iraqi Alliance, the Shiite coalition that dominates parliament, met with Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani in Najaf after traveling to the holy city over the past few days. Al-Sistani holds no political post and rarely emerges from his home and adjacent office, but he has strong influence over Shiite politics.

Some members of the Shiite alliance have sought a coalition that would include Kurds and Sunnis, and sideline Muqtada al-Sadr, the radical Shiite cleric whose militia is blamed for much of Iraq's sectarian violence. Lawmakers who attended the meeting with al-Sistani said the cleric opposed any move that would divide Shiites.

(snip)
An official close to al-Sistani, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media, said the cleric "will not bless nor support any new bloc or front. He only supports the unity of the Shiites."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061223/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_061222231812

[LaBanty]

1. the right to be fundie

"will not bless nor support any new bloc or front. He only supports the unity of the Shiites."

Translation: I don't want to get along, I don't want to evolve, I don't want any other sect to possibly criticize my faith - I want to stay waist deep in religious fundamentalism and hate anyone that isn't like me. Stop the killing? Work toward getting along? Hell no! It's easier to blame everyone else and lead your masses to extinction with your head firmly planted up your ass.

Congratu-fucking-lations, you could be Pat Roberts' best friend if only you were Christian.

[Demit]

3. You are reading way too much into what somebody said al-Sistani thinks.

Seems to me al-Sadr is the divisive element in this stew, the potentially explosive element, and later in the piece al-Sistani is characterized as being worried about al-Sadr's role in everything that is going on. I don't know all the ins and outs of this most recent attempt at coalition, but I think there's a hell of a lot more going on than your simplistic extrapolation of what al-Sistani might mean by what he is (reported to be) thinking.

[Kagemusha]

4. I think al-Sistani has good reason to be worried.

Sadr is the power on the streets and Sistani, is not - a situation that deepens a little bit more each and every day.

Besides, if evolution is cheerleading a Shiite civil war - in which Sadr, in life or death, might well win - no wonder he thinks better of it. If the Baathists are going to come back someday, that's the best way for it to take place: after the Shiites exhaust themselves against each other. (Though it's still unlikely. Just a fair bit likelier than if there was Shiite unity but, if anything, that's a naive hope of a lifelong religious man.)

[alfredo]

7. al-Sistani is a moderating force. Yes, his allegiance is to the

Shiites, but that is because he is Shiite. He is not a firebrand, he is a holy man. I'd rather he be the voice of the Shiite than Sadr.

[rodeodance]

2. another US backed plan down the tubes.

[IndianaGreen]

5. Another American Victory Plan in Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan

Iraq was lost a long time ago, and we are about to lose Afghanistan. Bush will be the first American President to have lost two wars at the same time, and that's assuming he doesn't start a new one in Iran.

[saigon68]

9. The Chimpanzee is a mass Murderer and a War criminal

And Awol draft Dodger

[VegasWolf]

6. MISSION err,um, ahh ACCOMPLISHED!!! nt

[Recursion]

8. Sistani's actually doing us a favor

He's giving us an opening to wash our hands of the whole mess and say, "Well, we tried to come up with a coalition government but Sistani said no." In similar news, the Sunnis just said that if we get the hell out of there within the next couple of months they won't attack us while we withdraw. In short, both sides of the civil war are now saying they don't want us there and that they'll give us a political and military way to get out.

I wonder why the US government isn't listening?

[fedsron2us]

10. "I wonder why the US government isn't listening?"

They still want to control all that lovely oil.

[Disturbed]

11. Top Shiite Cleric Balks at Plan for Iraq

Top Shiite Cleric Balks at Plan for Iraq
By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - A U.S.-backed plan to form a political coalition of Iraq's Shiites, Sunni Arabs and Kurds - a glimmer of hope in a nation torn by sectarian violence - failed to win the crucial support of the top Shiite cleric Saturday.

Lawmakers who presented the plan to Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani in the holy city of Najaf said they were told the unity of Shiites, who have the largest bloc in parliament, had to come first.
By shunning the coalition plan, al-Sistani sought to unite the Shiite's fractured 130-member United Iraqi Alliance. But his decision - which carries great weight with the country's Shiite majority - significantly weakens American hopes for a national unity government and strengthens the hand of the radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

Al-Sistani's decision may not doom the proposed coalition, but it significantly reduces the it's chances.

(Snip)An official close to al-Sistani, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media, said the cleric ``will not bless nor support any new bloc or front. He only supports the unity of the Shiites.''


(Snip)One of al-Sadr's key demands is a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6300064,00.html

It seems that the Busholini Regime is holding up any plans for Peace In Iraq because they don't want al Sadr to be part of the Iraqi Govt.

[sam sarrha]

12. maybe they are too busy slaughtering the Sunni's perpetuating a 1200 yr old family feud