Influential Shiite cleric opposes ousting President Masum for Maliki

BAGHDAD, Iraq – The influential Shiite Iraqi cleric Muqtada al-Sadr has said he opposes replacing President Fuad Masum with Vice President Nouri al-Maliki, a political rival to the Sadr Movement for the past decade.

 

Asked by one of his followers for his view on attempts to remove Masum, a Kurd, from his post because of the Kurdistan independence referendum and replace him with Maliki, the Shiite cleric said he does not believe that is the right decision. 

 

“It is one kind of political pressure,” Sadr wrote in a statement published by his media office. “Despite the fact I do not believe it will be successful, it is also not right at the moment.”

 

Sadr and Maliki are staunch rivals, mainly because of disagreements that go back to when US and British forces were present in Iraq. In 2008 the then US-backed and Maliki-led government carried out a military operation against Sadr armed group in Basra and elsewhere in the country. 

 

Regarding the Kurdistan referendum last month that saw 92.7 percent of voters support leaving Iraq despite strong opposition from the Iraqi government, Sadr said he hoped Kurds will turn back the clock. 

 

“What the government is doing amounts to a shy [move] with regard to the territorial and national unity of Iraq,” Sadr said of the measures the Iraqi government has taken against Erbil in the wake of the vote. 

 

“I wish that the Kurds will retreat from the referendum and will commit to the articles of the constitution, instead of taking Iraq and themselves into a conflict that has no way out,” the cleric stated.

 

The Kurdistan government has repeatedly stated that the Iraqi government has violated at least one third of the Iraqi constitution and has described the punitive measures imposed by Baghdad since September 25 as “collective punishment.”

 

Baghdad says the referendum was in violation of the constitution and has demanded Erbil annul the outcome of the vote before any talks can take place. 

 

VP Maliki served as prime minister from 2006 to 2014. He was succeeded by Haider al-Abadi, a Shiite politician from Maliki’s Dawa Party.