According to this news item from the Iraq New Agency and contrary to a recent report in the Financial Times, Washington is not at all pleased that Muqtada al-Sadr looks like the kingmaker in Baghdad. Once referred to by the U.S. as a ‘radical Shiite cleric,’ al-Sadr has created an alliance with current Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, assuring him of a second term despite his evident electoral defeat last March.
According to the news item by reporter Amina Yunis, a member of al-Sadr’s faction in Iraq’s National Assembly, referring to U.S. Ambassador James Jeffrey, is quoted as saying:
We always knew that whether it was Jeffrey or some other U.S. official, they would act in accordance with the mentality of the occupier, which of course we reject.
Meanwhile, Adnan al-Danbus, a legislator with the Iraqi List led by former Prime Minister Ayad Ailawi, who was thought to have won the election and hence the right to form a government said:
It was to be expected that the Americans would support al-Maliki since he is the one that implemented the Charge of the Knights (reference to the military campaign against the al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army in the south of the country). But now that al-Maliki is allying himself with it, this will definitely anger Washington.
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