Al-Sadr decries U.S. presence in Iraq

McClatchy Newspaper:


BAGHDAD, Iraq - In a rare appearance on state-operated Iraqi television, radical anti-American Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada al-Sadr on Thursday called the U.S.-backed government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki "neglectful" and sectarian and blamed Iraq's problems on the U.S. presence in the country.

The tone of his statements weren't surprising. Al-Sadr has been consistently anti-American since his Mahdi Army militia first rebelled against the U.S. presence in 2004. He's also grown increasingly critical of al-Maliki, who came to office last year largely on the strength of al-Sadr's support, and last month al-Sadr withdrew his backers from al-Maliki's government.

But his willingness to sit for an interview that lasted nearly an hour marked a new stage in his efforts to recast himself as a nationalist figure capable of uniting Sunni and Shiite partisans, two weeks after he resurfaced from a months-long absence.

In the interview, al-Sadr said that "the layers of government and parties are turning their backs on the people." He added that the government is only half-hearted in its efforts to serve the people.