Iraqi government making up crisis with Sadrists to pass security deal with US, says Shaikh Salah Al-Ubaydi
 
Baghdad - Voices of Iraq
Monday , 21 /04 /2008  Time 10:42:23 
Baghdad, Apr 21, (VOI) –

A spokesman for Shi'i leader Muqtada al-Sadr accused on Monday the Iraqi government of "making up a crisis with the Sadrists" to pass a security and economic deal with the U.S. government, urging the government to implement the deal reached with the Sadrists to end the Basra crisis.

"There were parties that signed (the agreement) on behalf of the prime minister (Nouri al-Maliki) and he has to respect this agreement to guarantee citizenship rights for Iraqis in general and the Sadrists in particular," Shaikh Salah al-Ubaydi told Aswat al-Iraq – Voices of Iraq – (VOI).

Armed confrontations flared up late last month in Basra, Iraq's second largest city and oil hub, between government forces and Sadr's Mahdi Army militias. The clashes coincided with angry upheavals in several southern provinces, where Sadr supporters spread.

The clashes broke out hours after Maliki declared a plan codenamed Saulat al-Forsan (Knights' Assault), which he said targeted the elimination of armed groups in Basra, 590 km south of the Iraqi capital Baghdad.

The clashes stopped only when Sadr ordered his followers to cease fire and avoid resisting the government forces. However, there are daily clashes erupting on a daily basis in Sadr City, eastern Baghdad, in addition to other sporadic skirmishes in Basra, where Iraqi and U.S. forces are waging security raids to track down "outlaws".

"The Iraqi government's campaigns against the Sadrist bloc are politically motivated with the aim of making gains from in the forthcoming provincial elections and passing an economic-security deal with the Americans," Ubaydi said.

Maliki had signed on November 26, 2007 an agreement of principles with the United States to lay the basis for cooperation in the security, political and economic fields.

The Iraqi and U.S. governments then said the accord could pave the way to start negotiations between Baghdad and Washington to ink a long-term agreement to regulate the U.S. military presence in Iraq on the long run.

"If the Iraqi people remained preoccupied, the government could pass this agreement with all its weaknesses that grant the U.S. side privileges at the expense of Iraq," Ubaydi indicated.

Sadr had on Saturday threatened "open war" with the government unless it chose what he called the "path of peace".

"I'm giving the last warning and the last word to the Iraqi government -- either it comes to its senses and takes the path of peace ... or it will be the same as the previous government," Sadr said, referring to Saddam Hussein's fallen regime but without elaborating.

The cleric added: "If they don't come to their senses and curb the infiltrated militias, then we will declare an open war until liberation."

Sadr's movement accuses other Shi'i parties of infiltrating their militias into the Iraqi security forces.

AE