This is from the NY Times.
What you have here is Iran supporting Maliki. The Americans have lost the Iraq war long ago once some sort of majority government was allowed. Sadr is a nationalist rather than a friend of Iran. Iran supported him only to hedge their bets and pester the Americans. For his part Maliki will have to stop his U.S. supported drive against the Sadrists in Sadr city. Maliki seems to have regained control in Basra but I have not seen much on the situation there recently. The U.S. keeps complaining about Iran while Iran has good relations with Maliki and no doubt helps supply the Badr brigades who at the moment are not attacking the U.S. Why should they when the U.S. supports the Maliki government!
May 11, 2008
Sadrists and Iraqi Government Reach Truce Deal
By
ALISSA J. RUBINBAGHDAD — The Iraqi government and leaders of the movement of the Shiite cleric
Moktada al-Sadr agreed Saturday to a truce, brokered with help from Iran, that would end more than a month of bloody fighting in the vast, crowded Sadr City section of Baghdad.
The fighting there, which has claimed several hundred lives, left many more wounded and forced residents to flee, has tested the ability of
Iraq’s Shiite-led government to confront powerful Shiite militias, here in Baghdad and in Basra, to the south.
The deal would allow the sides to pull back from what was becoming a messy and unpopular showdown in the months leading up to crucial provincial elections. It is not clear who won, how long it would take for the truce to take effect or how long it would hold. But at least for now it would end the warfare among Shiite factions.
The Iranians helped end the standoff by throwing their weight behind the government after a delegation of Shiite members of Parliament visited Iran earlier this month, according to three people involved in negotiating the truce.
Under the terms of the agreement, Prime Minister
Nuri Kamal al-Maliki’s government would gain control over Sadr City, now a largely lawless area, and in turn give members of Mr. Sadr’s militia who were not actively involved in the fighting a guarantee that they would not be arrested.
The decision to negotiate a cease-fire came as both parties appeared to realize that they were losing ground. Civilians in Sadr City blame both sides for their suffering.
The Iraqi government has done little to ease the crisis and allow medical and other aid to reach people. There has been almost no effort to repair the shattered neighborhood, where burned-out cars and piles of bricks from bomb-damaged houses are common sights..
For the Shiite militias, losses have been rising as well. They are suffering more casualties and are also being blamed for the deaths of some civilians, who frequently bear the brunt of the gun battles. More than 30 people have been killed there since Thursday.
Furthermore, the political establishment appears to have turned against them, at least for now.
“The ground has changed for them,” said Jalaluddin al-Sagheer, a member of Parliament from the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, a rival party to the Sadrists. “They are suffering a lot of losses and defeats, and they are politically isolated.”
Conversely, he added, “there is national, political unity” coalescing behind the government.
The visit to Iran by members of Parliament had been cited by the Americans as the first Iraqi effort to confront Iran with evidence of its training, financing and arming of Shiite militias in Iraq. But the trip evolved into a sophisticated political maneuver that could help the Iraqis out of a situation that was taking a rising toll on the country’s political stability.
The members of Parliament asked Iran to lean on the Shiite militias they have influence with, said Ali Adeeb, a Parliament member from Mr. Maliki’s Dawa Party who was part of the delegation. “They said the better way to deal with the Sadrists is by negotiation; don’t fight them and don’t use force.”
Haider Abbadi, another member of Parliament, said the Iranians “promised that they would pressure all the groups that they have communication with to defer to Iraqi law.”
Mr. Sadr’s representatives did not answer phone calls late Saturday and have not confirmed Iran’s role in the negotiations. Nor was it certain that Mr. Sadr had personally signed off on the deal, although a spokesman confirmed that “the Sadr movement” had agreed to the truce.
Whether the truce will last is an open question. In Basra, where a similar deal was struck last month, violence stopped completely almost overnight, but in recent days there have been a few explosions of homemade bombs and rocket fire that suggest the armed groups are merely underground for the time being.
Iran’s influence could prove invaluable in that regard. If the Iranians supply the weapons, cash and training that American intelligence officials say they do, they could threaten to limit or cut off those supplies, hampering the militias’ ability to fight. Iran has denied supplying the militias.
Mr. Sadr has long had a fraught relationship with Iran. A staunch Arab nationalist, he has eschewed close political ties to Tehran, making it unclear whether he would heed Iran’s requests.
By Saturday evening, word of the truce had yet to trickle down to the front lines in Sadr City, where the fighting continued. Four homemade bombs exploded there in the late afternoon and there were several firefights.
However, a commander of Mr. Sadr’s militia who goes by the nom de guerre Haji Abu Mohammed said the order had gone out only in the early evening for gunmen to begin to withdraw from the streets.
Parliament members involved in the deal said the gunmen had four days to fully withdraw. The agreement also permits the Iraqi Army to search for weapons in Sadr City and detain fighters for whom they have warrants.
Militia fighters would have to refrain from firing on the Green Zone. If they complied, the American military would not be involved in the military operations in the militia-held northern part of Sadr City.
Residents of Sadr City expressed doubt that the truce would hold and frustration at both the government and the militia. “All that we hope for is safety and safety and security,” Abu Hussein said as he lugged a container of fuel home for his generator. “The only loser in this battle has been the people. The politicians live on the government, not with us here. They do not feel the suffering of the neighborhood.”
The Iraqi Army division that has been fighting in Sadr City is already holding meetings to discuss the next steps. Previously, the Iraqi Army was making plans to enter the militia-held area of Sadr City by force.
The Iraqi Army is now stationed in the southern part of the neighborhood with American Army units. The Iraqis hold the forward positions closest to the front lines. The northern area has been held by Shiite militias, both those of Mr. Sadr, the
Mahdi Army, and the so-called special groups that the American military and many Iraqis say are linked more directly to Iran.
The flashpoint for the past four weeks has been the dividing line, Al Quds Street. The Americans have built a high concrete wall between the two areas, and militia members have been trying to blow a hole in the thick concrete.
Late Friday afternoon, some children played kickball along the militia-held side of the wall while two men carrying medium-heavy machine guns and a third with an AK-47 rifle observed it from a nearby alley. Seeing a reporter and photographer nearby, the gunmen asked the journalists to leave because they wanted to launch an attack. Then they vanished into the warren of bomb-wrecked buildings.
In the north on Saturday, Iraqi security officials said they were renewing their operations against Sunni insurgents in Mosul. Lt. Gen. Riyadh Jalal Tawfiq, commander of Iraqi armed forces in Nineveh Province, said large numbers of Iraqi forces had been sent there to “clean the province of
Al Qaeda remnants,” referring to the homegrown Sunni insurgent group,
Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, that American intelligence officers say has foreign leadership.
Reporting was contributed by Michael R. Gordon, Qais Mizher, Ammar Karim, Mudhafer al-Husaini and Riyadh Mohammed.
