Moqtada al-Sadr throws Iraqi unity talks into disarray

Efforts to form a government of national unity in Iraq are floundering amid concerns from Kurds, Sunni Arabs and secularists at the "undue influence" within the ruling Shia alliance of the militant anti-western cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. The 33-year old leader–whose support was crucial to last week's controversial re-nomination of the prime minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari–threw the nascent talks into disarray, saying he opposed Iraq's new federal constitution and repeating calls for the swift withdrawal of US and other foreign forces. "I reject this constitution which calls for sectarianism and there is nothing good in this constitution at all," he told Aljazeera television in a rare interview, conducted in Jordan. He added that the withdrawal of foreign forces "should be the priority of the future Iraqi government." The tortuous negotiations over policies and posts in the new government begin in earnest this week, but most say it will take weeks if not months until Iraqis see the first full-term administration since the fall of Saddam Hussein. Sadr's supporters also ruled out the inclusion of the former prime minister Ayad Allawi in any future government. "[Allawi's] participation in government is a red line for the Sadr stream," said Fatah al-Sheikh, a pro-Sadr member of the national assembly. Sadr's followers say they cannot forgive Allawi for the bloody assault during his term in office on the al-Mahdi army in the sacred Shia city of Najaf. The blunt statements by Sadr are at odds with his partners and rivals in the United Iraqi Alliance (UIA), the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (Sciri), as well as with the powerful Kurdish bloc–the UIA's junior coalition allies. Both Sciri and the Kurds back the constitution and rule out a firm date for troop withdrawal. The Kurds say they will not join any administration unless it includes Allawi's list. "We believe there will be no political stability until all the Iraqi constituencies are included," said Mahmoud Othman, a member of the Kurdish negotiating committee. "That's why the Kurdish alliance are working on a government that includes the Sunni Arabs as well as Allawi." Iraq's leading non-Shia parties are also mounting a last-minute bid to block the reappointment of Ibrahim al-Jaafari as prime minister, citing his previous ineffectiveness in office and his new "political debt" to Sadr. "The al-Sadr stream is now very powerful within the United Iraqi Alliance and is now flexing its muscles, trying to have things their way," said an aide to the Iraqi president, Jalal Talabani. "They were the only ones apart from Dawa [Jaafari's party] who supported his candidature. And Jaafari owes them a lot." After launching two failed uprisings against US forces in Baghdad and cities across southern Iraq in 2004, Sadr and his al-Mahdi militia, who are popular among the young urban Shia poor, have regrouped and joined the political process. That decision more than paid off in December's elections, which saw Sadrists emerge as the largest single party within the UIA. His followers won 32 of 128 seats gained by the UIA and as a reward for supporting a Jaafari premiership they are expected to get five cabinet posts in the next government. But the young cleric's apparently inexorable rise within the Shia group has sent shockwaves through the country's non-Shia political establishment. Although most agree it is better to have the unpredictable Sadr within the political mainstream, his extreme religious views and nationalist rhetoric–designed in part to reach out to disaffected Sunnis–are likely to do little to heal the country's gaping ethnic and sectarian wounds. Khaled Salih, an Iraq analyst at the University of Denmark, said: "It is fruitless to search for a unifying figure in Iraq. All you can hope for is that the various centers of power that are emerging–Kurds, Shia, Sunnis–can find a relatively peaceful way to share that power. Democracy will come later."