Sadr Takes Aim at New U.S.-Iraq Agreement
The document is signed but its future is uncertain.
After the Iraqi cabinet voted in approval, Iraq’s Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari and U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker met in Baghdad to sign the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA).
Both diplomats hailed the event as a “historic” one — not an overstatement as their meeting was the fruit of many months of deliberations and negotiations.
Reportedly, SOFA has a sister document whose details are yet to be made public. Radio Sawa reported that Zebari and Crocker signed “another long-term strategic agreement, which the U.S. ambassador said would shape relations between the two countries in all areas for years to come.” It’s actually surprising that there’s no mention of this second document anywhere in the media.
After the cabinet approved the agreement, movement began immediately in the parliament to found coalitions among parliamentary groups that are in favor of the agreement and among those opposed to it as well.
A parliamentary source told al-Sabah that a number of parliamentary leaders started working yesterday to build consensus over the agreement. The source said the positions of parliamentary powers are not clear yet but also added that “there is inclination toward approval, especially that cabinet members from the major groups approved the agreement yesterday. Ratifying the agreement in the parliament will not be impossible but also might face great obstacles.”
Once the news broke, Moqtada Sadr responded in his usual way. He called the agreement “a disgrace” and called on the Iraqi parliament to reject it.
Sadr said in a statement that “here is disgrace and humiliation brought by the United Iraqi Alliance and some Iraqi parties.” He added, “the government signed the agreement with the occupier with the help of the [Shiite] Alliance and some Kurdish parties under the pretext of ending the occupation. Overthrowing occupation is a religious and patriotic duty supported by logic and [religious] texts. Therefore it requires no agreement with those who respect neither faith nor promises.”
In his message, Sadr stressed that he considers the agreement void even if ratified and asserted that the “faithful will not be bound by it.” He called on the parliament to reject it without the least hesitation so that “Iraq and its people do not get sold out the way other Muslim countries were.”
Sadr also announced the formation of the Promised Day Brigade from Sadr movement elements and other sympathetic armed groups in order to fight American forces.
Page 1 of 2 Next ->
Omar and Mohammed Fadhil are PJM's Baghdad editors and they blog at Iraq the Model.
 |
 |
 |
Podcasts |  PJM Home |
Pajamas Media appreciates your comments that abide by the following guidelines:
1. Avoid profanities or foul language unless it is contained in a necessary quote or is relevant to the comment.
2. Stay on topic.
3. Disagree, but avoid ad hominem attacks.
4. Threats are treated seriously and reported to law enforcement.
5. Spam and advertising are not permitted in the comments area.
The clause regarding "hate speech" has been deleted because readers criticized it as being too loosely defined. We agreed.
These guidelines are very general and cannot cover every possible situation. Please don't assume that Pajamas Media management agrees with or otherwise endorses any particular comment. We reserve the right to filter or delete comments or to deny posting privileges entirely at our discretion. If you feel your comment was filtered inappropriately, please email us at story@pajamasmedia.com.
10 Comments
1. George Bush On Best Political Blogs » Sadr Takes Aim at New U.S.-Iraq Agreement:[...] Sadr Takes Aim at New U.S.-Iraq Agreement The document is signed but its future is uncertain. [...]
Nov 19, 2008 - 1:49 am 2. dougf:“Anyway, I think the Iraqi decision to accept the deal was a result of the tough stance of the American administration.”
Well, clearly you have not been keeping up with the ‘NEWS’. Evidently according to the MSM(may they all be Sadr’s guests for the Holiday Season), this is all just a BIG defeat for the Bushitler Regime.
Seemingly now that Bush has ‘accepted’ a timetable, his defeat is now clear to all,and the ‘wrongness’ of his past positions has been exposed. That conditions in Iraq have altered dramatically over the past year is a matter of no import whatsoever. Context and nuance are now out the window after years of being in the spotlight.
You really need to read more ‘NEWS’. How else can you be truly informed .
Nov 19, 2008 - 4:49 am 3. ramsis:dougf:
Nov 19, 2008 - 12:53 pm 4. Ms Attitude:hilarious!
I’m a little perplexed by why any news org. would take the time to even ask a nobody like sadr. In regards to mookie and his gang they are as relevent to Iraqi progress as the Iranians.
I still think that in the future when historians write about Bush they will have him as being a good, if not great, president. He might not be the most eloquent speaker but we are about to see what eloquent speech gets us.
Nov 19, 2008 - 5:49 pm 5. Michael Lonie:“America is the best ally we could possibly have”.
I devoutly hope so, but if the Democrats do to you what they did to South Vietnam and Cambodia we will deserve whatever subsequent disasters come upon us. The liberals and leftists here in the USA do not understand that ratting on an ally is a profoundly stupid and immoral thing to do. They see it only through the prism of their partisan selfishness.
If the Arabs are ever going to escape the twin disasters of corrupt secular tyrannies or fanatically religous tyrannies Iraqis will have to pioneer the way. For the rest of us, without the extension of consensual government among the Arabs there will just be a continuing escalation of terrorism. We will respond to that and the response eventually will be as terrible as the terrorists’ mode of warfare or worse. For that reason George Bush and the dreaded Neocons were the Arabs’ best friends, since they wanted to suppress the Islamist terrorism before that point is reached.
Nov 19, 2008 - 7:34 pm 6. albu:Trash! Opinionated reporting. ha ha ha
Nov 19, 2008 - 7:58 pm 7. anton:Mookie is like a spoiled three-year-old, he gets all pouty and misbehaves when the grown-ups don’t pay enough attention to him. Has he forgotten that the last time his little band of thugs and rapists got out of line it was the Iraqi Army that stopped by for a visit, not the US forces? What I can’t understand is why this bozo hasn’t had an “accident” with one of jis own IEDs. I know why the MSM always look to him for a sound-bite; he is the last Iraqi that agrees with them.
Nov 20, 2008 - 10:36 am 8. Habib Abboud:Sadr’s legacy will be as a man who when Iraq needed him most launched a Saddam-style reign of terror on fellow Iraqis included mass killings, some of the most brutal torture seen anywhere and then he stayed mostly in Iran. What a coward who is as bad as Saddam. Instead of a respected Shiite religious leader he is a brutal fool. Iraq would be better without him. He needs to be brought to trial. He is just trying to be a Shiite Saddam.
Nov 21, 2008 - 5:21 am 9. Marzouq the Redneck Muslim:Great report Mohammed,
Mookie reminds me of Al Sharpton. I think he is just rabble rousing and incitin for the power and the $$$$ (don’t know the sign for dinar). He is a pseudo minister. Mookie’s relevance diminishes with each tantrum, be patient and let it continue.
The major difference between him and Sharpton is Mookie is a criminal and a murderer. I still recall the killing of Imam al Khoei and strongly suspect his complicity. I believe he is power hungry enough to have ordered it and should be tried.
Basically, like Sharpton, he is a pain in the butt. Extremists like that are best left alive to hang themselves with their talk instead of being made into martyrs. If he continues to incite, the Iraqi govt will have to act and imprison him in a maximum security facility.
Cooler and saner heads are beginning to take charge in Iraq. I have more and more faith in the Iraqi governing class as it matures and stands on it’s own.
Here’s one for y’all: May Allah’s blessings be upon Sheik Satar, an example of true Iraqi heroism!
Salaam eleikum Y’all!
Nov 21, 2008 - 3:59 pm 10. The Two Malcontents » US forces capture 14 Iraqi Shia terrorists in Baghdad:[...] pull the rank and file of the League back into the fold of the Sadr’s political movement. In a recent message issued by Sadr where he rejected the US-Iraqi security agreement, he said he "extends his hand to the [...]
Nov 23, 2008 - 4:34 pm