Moqtada Sadr’s Spokesman: All of the Al-Qaeda’s Terrorist operations in Iraq are directed by the US Forces

Mehran Riazaty: Iran Analyst. Translations from the Iranian media.

March 30, Fars News Agency reported that Moqtada Sadr’s spokesman, Saheb Ameri, in an interview with radio Iraq, said that we have important documents which show the collaboration of the US forces with Al-Qaeda in Iraq. By referring to the recent criminal act of the US forces at the al- Mustafa Mosque in north of Baghdad, Ameri said the Army of Mahdi will react to the US forces on a suitable time. Ameri said that if the US forces repeat their criminal attacks, we will target all bases of the occupied forces in Iraq. READ MORE

Jaafari slams US interference

March 30, Islamic Republic Broadcasting of Iran reported that the Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari warned against US interference in his country's politics in an interview published in the Thursday edition of the New York Times. Jaafari told the Times that certain comments from US officials had undermined President George W. Bush's public stance in favor of democracy in Iraq. "There was a stand from both the American government and President Bush to promote a democratic policy and protect its interests," he told the paper in an interview conducted in his Baghdad home. "But now there's concern among the Iraqi people that the democratic process is being threatened." "The source of this is that some American figures have made statements that interfere with the results of the democratic process," he said. "These reservations began when the biggest bloc in parliament chose its candidate for prime minister." Jaafari said he disagreed with the former US administrator in Baghdad, Paul Bremer, who barred Sadr and some other Muslim groups from participating in the political process. "I look at them as part of Iraq's de facto reality, whether some of the individual people are negative or positive," he told the Times. "Anyone who's part of the Iraqi reality should be part of the Iraqi house." And they will respect the army or police rather than the militias," Jaafari said. He said that key ministries would go to figures without ties to militias or clear sectarian bias. "We insist that the ministers in the next cabinet, especially the ministers of defense and the interior, shouldn't be connected to any militias, and they should be non-sectarian," he said. "They should be experienced in security work. They should keep the institutions as security institutions, not as political institutions. They should work for the central government," he added.

Analyst Comment: It seems the Shiite United Alliance with support of the Iranian authorities is in the verge of taking over Iraq. By studying the Shiite groups in Iraq we realize these groups some how branching from each other. In 1950 Ayatollah Mohammad Baqir al-Sadr established Dawa Party. The aim of the Dawa was to organize dedicated Muslim believers with the goal of seizing power and establishing an Islamic state. Ayatollah Baqir al-Sadr was executed by Saddam on April 8, 1980.

Ayatollah Khomeini and Sadr had a similar ideology. Sadr openly supported the Ayatollah Khomeini's regime in Iran. When Ayatollah Khomeini called upon Muslims in Iraq to follow the example of the Iranian people and rise up against the corrupt secular Ba'thist socialist regime, they interpreted it as the first step in the spread of Islamic movement that would eventually lead to the destabilization of the whole region.

Mohammad Baqir al-Sadr and Ayatollah Khomeini

Sadr told al-Khaqani, the Ba'th regime's mediator: The only thing I have sought in my life is to make the establishment of an Islamic government on earth possible. Since it has been formed in Iran under the leadership of Imam [Khomeini] it makes no difference to me whether I am alive or dead because the dream I wanted to attain and the hope I wanted to achieve have come true, thanks to God (Al-Nu'mani as quoted in al-Ha'iri, Mabaith, pp. 162-63).

The leaders of Dawa Party were all under protection of Iran. After death of Baqir Sadr, all of the al Dawa Party’s leaders moved to Iran. In Iran Dawa Party branched to different groups. One of the Dawa Party leaders, Ibrahim al-Jaafari (current Prime Minister of Iraq) moved from Iran to England.

Those Dawa Party leader who remained in Iran, became members of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI). The SCIRI was established by Iran to unite all of the Iraqi Shiite in Iran. Therefore, the heritage of Baqir Sadr become under influence of Ayatollah Baqir Hakim. Ayatollah Hakim was named by Ayatollah Khomeini as the head of an Islamic Republic of Iraq.

After fall of Saddam, Moqtada Sadr and his Army of Mahdi also claimed the heritage of Ayatollah Baqir Sadr. Moqtada Sadr is the fourth son of the famous Iraqi Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Mohammad Mohammad Sadeq al-Sadr and son-in-law of Grand Ayatollah Mohammad Baqir As-Sadr.

Mehran Riazaty: a former Iran analyst for the Central Command of the Coalition Forces in Baghdad.

Keyword: Iran