Posted on 05/10/2008 8:47:49 AM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
After over six weeks of heavy fighting in and around the Mahdi Army stronghold Sadr City, where Mahdi Army forces took lopsided casualties in the fighting, the government and the Sadrist political bloc has signed an agreement to end the fighting. The agreement will allow for the Iraqi military to operate freely inside Sadr City while the Mahdi Army must halt its fighting.
The negotiations, which took place over the course of the last several days, culminated in the signing of a 14-point agreement. Both Iraqi government spokesman Ali al Dabbagh and Sadrist spokesman Sheikh Salih al Ubaydi confirmed an agreement was reached.
The full details of the agreement are not public. According to several press reports, the Mahdi Army has made major concessions to the Iraqi government, including allowing the Army to enter Sadr City. There is no agreement for the Mahdi Army to fully disarm, as Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki has insisted since the conflict began on March 25.
The major points of the agreement, based on press reports, are as follows:
• The Iraqi government and the Mahdi Army would observe a four-day cease-fire.
• At the end of the cease-fire, Iraqi forces would be allowed to enter Sadr City and conduct arrests if warrants have been issued, or if the Mahdi Army is in possession of medium or heavy weapons (RPGs, rockets, mortars).
• The Mahdi Army and the Sadrist bloc must recognize the Iraqi government has control over the security situation and has the authority to move security forces to impose the law.
• The Mahdi Army would end all attacks, including mortar and rockets strikes against the International Zone.
• The Mahdi Army must clear Sadr City of roadside bombs.
• The Mahdi Army must close all "illegal courthouses."
• The Iraqi government would reopen the entrances to Sadr City.
• The Iraqi government would provide humanitarian aid to the residents of Sadr City.
The Sadrist said the US military would not be allowed to operate inside Sadr City; however there is no confirmation of this from the Iraqi government or the US military. "The Iraqi forces, not the American forces, can come into Sadr City and search for weapons," Baha al Araji, a Sadrist legislator said. "We don't have big weapons, and we want this to stop."
The Iraqi government insists that internal pressure forced the Sadrist movement to the negotiating table. "It is not the government who pressured the Sadrists into entering this agreement," said Ali al Adeeb, a leading member of the Dawa party. "It is the pressure from the people inside Sadr City and from their own people that will make them act more responsibly."
There is no word on the status of the concrete barrier that is being built that will partition the southern third of Sadr City from the northern neighborhood. In an inquiry to Multinational Division Baghdad, the US command that is working with the Iraqi military to build the barrier in Sadr City, does not expect the construction will stop as the Mahdi Army has not obeyed Sadr's past calls to cease the fighting.
"Seeing as how the Special Groups never listened to [Sadr] to begin with, I don't see how things will change," Lieutenant Colonel Steven Stover, the chief Public Affairs Officer for Multinational Division Baghdad, told The Long War Journal.
The Mahdi Army has taken heavy casualties in Sadr City and the surrounding neighborhoods since the fighting began on March 25. A total of 562 Mahdi Army fighters have been confirmed killed in and around Sadr City since March 25, according to numbers compiled by The Long War Journal. Multinational Division Baghdad recently began to announce that US Special Operations Forces are openly operating on the ground in support of the building of the barrier. The Iraqi government has also pressured the Mahdi Army in Basrah, where 70 percent of the city is now reported as cleared, and the wider South.
Background on the recent fighting in with the Mahdi Army
More details ....
Excellent. No wonder Iran has told Hezbollah to wake up. They saw that their hand in Iran is no longer strong.
Background note:
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By NIBRAS KAZIMI May 9, 2008
Ever since the prime minister of Iraq, Nouri al-Maliki, launched Operation Cavalry Charge in Basra on March 25, which has been going on there and elsewhere across Iraq, three important conclusions can be drawn: the Iraqi state and the Iraqi army can function on their own; an influential figure in Iraq, Muqtada al-Sadr, is much weaker than he was deemed to be; and Iran has bet on the wrong horse.
As a result of being unable to rely on Mr. Sadr’s organization, Iran would lose a menacing avenue for retaliation against America should Iran’s illicit nuclear program get attacked.
Basra had a moment of clarity, illuminating the convergence of several positive trends in Iraq. What’s driving these trends is a sense among regular Iraqis that their state has outlasted its challengers, whether they are Sunni insurgents, organized crime cartels, or hostile regional powers. Basra is “Exhibit A” for those who argue that Iraq’s remaining problems are fixable, that the achievements seen so far are irreversible, and that a sense of patriotic cohesion is salvageable and viable.
Consequently, the events in Basra do not sit well with those who have argued otherwise and staked their careers and credibility to the storyline that Iraq is irredeemable, such as the many journalists and pundits who have been covering Iraq over the last five years. This has seemingly induced them to fabricate a negative and false narrative in the hope that their predictions would go unchallenged.
Six weeks ago, Iraqi policemen in Basra were dodging RPG projectiles fired by teenagers. These days, though, they keep themselves busy with house-to-house sweeps in search for weapons caches. Moreover, on a daily basis, they issue hundreds of tickets for traffic and parking violations. Indeed, the situation in Basra has changed dramatically.
The violence in Basra was not sectarian in nature even though Iraq’s southernmost province — first in potential wealth with between 60% and 70% of the country’s oil and second, after Baghdad, in its population size — boasts a significant Sunni minority, as well as Christian, Mandean, and non-mainstream Shia denominations.
Basra’s chaos resulted from a unique mélange of Iranian meddling, proliferation of organized crime, and Britain’s unsteady hand in running military and political matters. The Americans had delegated Basra’s management to their British allies, who ended up ruining things in Iraq’s most promising piece of real estate.
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Now how will the MSM spin this?
Followers of rebel cleric Muqtada al Sadr agreed late Friday to allow Iraqi security forces to enter all of Baghdad’s Sadr City and to arrest anyone found with heavy weapons in a surprising capitulation that seemed likely to be hailed as a major victory for Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki.
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The MSM and the left were hoping for another big disaster to lay at the feet of Bushitler. Foiled once again. When will they learn?
In other words, the Mahdi Army has surrendered, though I doubt it will be portrayed that way in the MSM.
To the MSM, this will just be more evidence of Sadr’s strength and magnanimous nature.
Mahdi Army Surrenders, Authorizes Iraq Government To Disarm Fighters
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Well, it should be damn interesting to see how the liberal SurrenderMedia spins this news into claims that Iraq is turning into another Vietnam. It seems the Mahdi Army in Sadr City has surrendered - completely:
Followers of rebel cleric Muqtada al Sadr agreed late Friday to allow Iraqi security forces to enter all of Baghdad’s Sadr City and to arrest anyone found with heavy weapons in a surprising capitulation that seemed likely to be hailed as a major victory for Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki.
In return, Sadr’s Mahdi Army supporters won the Iraqi government’s agreement not to arrest Mahdi Army members without warrants, unless they were in possession of “medium and heavy weaponry.”
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What is interesting is how this sudden capitulation comes one day after aids to cleric Moqtada al-Sadr lashed out at the top Shiite cleric in all of Iraq and basically claimed he shared the guilty for the deaths in Sadr City because he had sided with Maliki and the US forces. This was an astounding and dangerous step for Sadr to take. Was this act of defiance too much for the powers to be, which decided it was time to end the fighting? Was Iran getting nervous about the building fire power the US was gathering in the region with the addition of another Carrier Group?
It was probably a combination of these factors, along with the fact that the Iraqi people were not rising up to side with Sadr and the Mahdi thugs, but instead were relieved when they Mahdi thugs were dispatched and the Iraqi government took control.
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***********************CONCLUSION**********************
The second biggest losers in all this were the doom&gloom liberal SurrenderMedia and Surrendercrats. The world just won’t produce another Vietnam for them. Their predictions were wrong - again. And their hopes of a US failure in Iraq were wrong - as they have always been. Wrong in a smelly, sick kind of way.
What will be interesting to watch is: (1) the liberal SurrenderMedia eat crow as Iraq passes another milestone towards its bright, free future, (2) seeing the people of Iraq enjoy the new peaceful Iraq that will be arising again soon, and (3) learning exactly what it was that caused the Mahdi to fold like a lawn chair. Someone pulled the plug on this one.
Ouch.
From the Belmont Club:
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Information Dissemination, the weblog of someone who describes himself as an "armchair admiral", looks at the the disposition US fleet units in Persian Gulf. Whether or not you believe there are going to be offensive operations against Iran, Information Dissemination has an interesting discussion of what naval objectives are important.
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The maritime importance of Iran's island positions can easily be seen from this Wikipedia map, showing the island's position in relation to the sealanes.
And there is some question whether they have put enough into Afghanistan as well..
This is less like a cease-fire but more like a surrender. Al-Sadr has been beat badly and now Maliki appears ready to offer him at least some face saving measure instead of making him a martyr.
Hell! Martyr Him. and Kill his Army.
Iran protests to Iraq over disputed Gulf islands (In the Straits of hormuz)
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3 days ago
TEHRAN (AFP) — Iran has protested to Iraq over reports that Baghdad had backed the United Arab Emirates' claim to three islands in the Gulf, the foreign ministry said on Wednesday.
"The Iraqi ambassador (Mohammed Majid Abbas al-Sheikh) was invited (to the foreign ministry) and was notified of Iran's protest," foreign ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini told the state broadcaster.
"The Iraqi government was also asked to correct its position," he said.
The official UAE agency WAM reported on April 28 that in a memorandum sent to UAE foreign ministry, the Iraqi government asserted "its unconditional support to the sovereignty of UAE" over the three islands.
"It also said that Iraq supports all procedures and peaceful means UAE will adopt to reclaim the three islands, and rejects any action from Iran to bolster the occupation," the agency reported.
Iran gained control of Greater Tunb, Lesser Tunb and Abu Musa islands, which control access to the Strait of Hormuz between Iran and the UAE, after British forces left the Gulf in 1971.
Iran has rejected claims by the UAE, which insists the islands in strategic Gulf waters are occupied by Iran. Tehran has also ruled out taking the issue before the international court in The Hague.
Despite their differences over the islands, the two states have close ties, with Iran being the UAE's top trading partner. Iranians also form a sizable diaspora community in Dubai.
Since the fall of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in 2003, Shiite-majority Iran has enjoyed warm ties with its western neighbour, which fought a bloody war with Iran 1980 to 1988.
However, the Iraqi government announced earlier this week that it will form a panel of security ministries to investigate and document any Iranian intervention in Iraqi affairs, amid mounting US claims of meddling by Tehran.
Iran vehemently rejects allegations of interference in Iraq, saying the best way to restore stability to the country would be the immediate exit of foreign troops.
Well, momma always said tell the truth even if it hurts.
See #16...funny how Iraq is backing the UAE over those little Islands....see the map at post # 11.
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