Shiite leader is ready to work with U.S. (The Iranian-backed one)

Reuters ^ | April 24, 2003

[Shermy]

An Iranian-backed Iraqi Shiite leader said he was ready to work with the United States and the international community to improve the conditions of Iraqis and establish security and stability in his war-torn homeland.

But Ayatollah Mohammed Baqer Al Hakim, one of the most powerful voices among Iraq's majority Shiites, said fervent demonstrations by hundreds of thousands of pilgrims at the holy shrine of Karbala showed Iraqis were able to govern themselves.

"There is no doubt we are going to cooperate with all sides and forces that have relations with the Iraqi issue," Hakim said in an interview. "Among these sides are America, Britain, the United Nations, the European Union, Arab and Islamic states."

Hakim, head of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revol-ution in Iraq (SCIRI), has lived in exile in Tehran for more than 20 years and has often been portrayed as a firebrand wanting to establish an Iranian-style Islamic republic in Iraq.

"We cannot make a comparison between the Iraqi and the Iranian people... the characteristics of the Iraqi people are different to those of Iranian people," he said. "We should not make a copy of the Iranian revolution and establish it in Iraq." Hakim said there could be a separation of church and state in Iraq, unlike in his host country Iran.

"Religious leaders are from the people and they must carry out their responsibilities," he said. "(But) it is not very necessary for the Iraqi regime to be in the hands of religious people. It all depends on the will of the Iraqi people."

Hakim denied there was a rift between himself and Ayatollah Ali Sistani, another senior Iraqi Shiite cleric who has advocated a secular system in Iraq. Sistani's house was besieged by rival hardliners in the holy city of Najaf last week.

"There is no problem between myself and Ayatollah Sistani, on the contrary, we have the greatest respect for one another." Hakim said he planned to return to Iraq "in the very near future".

Hundreds of thousands of pilgrims have filled the holy city of Karbala this week in a show of strength marked by chants of "Yes to Islam, no to America" raising worries in Washington of a rise of Islamic fundamentalism in Iraq.

Hakim, stroking his grey beard, played down such fears.

"In these marches the Iraqi people want to say they are able to manage their affairs themselves," he said. "I believe the Iraqi people have no enmity, no hostility toward any other side or country, they only want freedom, security, justice and independence."

Asked if U.S. troops should immediately leave Iraq, Hakim said: "The Iraqi people must start to establish their national government and take responsibility to manage their affairs. There is no necessity for any foreign domination in Iraq."

"The Americans say they will remain in Iraq only for a very limited period, but I don't know how long that will last."

Despite saying he was ready to work with Washington, Hakim's SCIRI boycotted a meeting between Iraqi opposition and U.S. officials in Nassiriya last week. He said he had no information about a similar meeting due to be held in Baghdad on Saturday.

"We have no information about that meeting," he said. "We had no precise information about the meeting in Nassiriya, that was one of the reasons we didn't attend."

[GraniteStateConservative]

Don't believe the nabobs bump.

[Shermy]

Don't believe the nabobs bump

Bump.

[PeoplesRep_of_LA]

I was surprised how relatively balanced that article you linked for me was. It didn't feel dripping with hate at all.

Strength and a show of force go amazingly (almost to the point of being patheticly) well in the infamous Arab Street. They are sycophantic sometimes really.

We should be pointing this out to people, so that the American street isn't depressed. But the simple fact that this is wrong just like the one MRE a day nonsense, the lack of ground troops, the uncontrolable looting, and every other pessimistic appraisal in the long road to total American success.

[Sonny M]

Has anyone noticed, that there have been several small demostrations, but in a country without TV or radio, yet these little protests are actually well organized, and all have the same slogans, and chants.

[ellery]

bttt

[TaxPayer2000]

Uh, correct me if I am wrong, but wasn't it the Shiite muslims in Iran that were chanting "death to america" while we thought they were saying, "USA USA RAH RAH RAH"??

shortly before they over ran the embassy and took several americans hostage?

[geedee]

We should be pointing this out to people, so that the American street isn't depressed.

It was an amazing article, huh? From Islam-Online! Sheesh, Fox News is the ONLY major media outlet who points out stuff like the 3000 protestors. EVERY other camera angle I've seen is ground-level on the protesters and then far, far away from the masses. You couldn't tell that, according to Islam's figures, 1,997,000 pilgrims were actually doing what they came to do . . . honoring a historical religious figure . . . and only 3000 of the trained monkeys from Iran were protesting against us. The camera machinations leaves the impression that all two million are rabidly anti-America . . . and that's just not the case.

But the majority won't ever know that. It doesn't fit the liberal agenda of the media.