Radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr is building an anti-US parliamentary alliance to demand the withdrawal of American troops from Iraq, some of his party's lawmakers have told AFP.
The 30-strong Sadrist bloc has suspended its support of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's ruling coalition and withdrawn six ministers from cabinet in protest at the premier's meeting with US President George W. Bush.
Maliki on Thursday urged the group to end their boycott.
"I wish they would revise their decision as it is not a positive milestone in the political process," Maliki told reporters after he returned from Amman where he met Bush Thursday.
Earlier on Thursday, Salih al-Agaili, a member of Sadr's parliamentary group, said the bloc now hoped to persuade more lawmakers to follow their suspension, adding that some have "started contacting us to take a similar position. We are holding talks with them."
He did not name the groups but said they would soon declare their intentions. "We are endeavouring to form a national front inside parliament to oppose the occupation," Agaili said.
He stressed that the minimum condition for Sadrist deputies to rejoin the government would be "a timetable for the withdrawal of US forces."
US forces are deployed in Iraq at the invitation of the national government and any parliamentary decision to expel them could trigger a political crisis. It is not clear, however, whether Sadr has the numbers to win such a vote.
Earlier this year, Sadr supporters claimed they had recruited 100 members of the 275-member parliament who wanted to send home the 150,000-strong US force backing Maliki, but this was never put to the test in the chamber.
Bush said on Thursday after holding talks with the Iraqi leader in Jordan that troops would remain in Iraq "until the job is complete".
The UN Security Council had earlier renewed the US-led coalition's mandate until the end of 2007 at the request of Maliki's government.
Agaili said Wednesday's decision to suspend the role of pro-Sadr deputies in the government was a result of both this UN vote and Maliki's decision to "meet the criminal George Bush in Amman".
After his talks with Bush, Maliki received the US leader's endorsement to continue his struggle to put down an insurgency, quell sectarian fighting and build a stable Iraq.
Maliki also won an agreement that he can take control of Iraqi forces from US-led coalition commanders more quickly, but Bush explicitly refused to set a timetable for the withdrawal of the US combat force.
"We will submit a host of demands to the prime minister when he comes back from Jordan," declared Baha al-A'raji, a Shiite cleric and a spokesman for Sadr's movement, speaking ahead of Maliki's return.
"At the forefront of these demands are the setting of a timetable for the withdrawal of the occupier, the handover of security tasks to Iraqis and the improvement of public services in secure cities," he told AFP.
Sadr's group also controls the Mahdi Army, the largest of Iraq's unofficial militias, and the boycott has increased concerns that Iraq's brutal sectarian war may push the country into further chaos.
Since February when Sunni extremists blew up a renowned Shiite mosque and triggered a wave of sectarian violence, many Iraqis have turned for protection to illegal armed groups like the Shiite Mahdi Army or Sunni Al-Qaeda.
The government and US commanders hope that better-trained Iraqi security forces will one day be able to win the trust of the population, but observers fear that a too rapid US withdrawal could see the country tumble into civil war.
( A civil war that most now feel is already being waged in Iraq ~ ALR )
Allen L Roland is a practicing psychotherapist, author and lecturer who also shares a daily political and social commentary on his weblog and website allenroland.com He also guest hosts a monthly national radio show TRUTHTALK on Conscious talk radio www.conscioustalk.net
