Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Iraq's Gerry Adams?

On 9 August at Najaf the Iraqi Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr said "I would support the United Nations here in Iraq if it comes and replaces American and British occupiers". Now at Karbala he says that he is freezing the activities of his Mehdi Army for six months. If he can deliver, do these pronouncements provide scope for a Basra Agreement in line with the Belfast Agreement?

P.S. Here is a useful analysis of the Mehdi Army.

8 comments:

ModernityBlog said...

Hope springs eternal?

I think many of the Iraqi clerics are wily a politicians than anyone can some credit for

Harry Barnes said...

Modernityblog; that makes them even more like Gerry Adams.

calgacus said...

Yes - that's exactly what i thought of him Harry. Good analogy.
Al Sadr is probably behind some of the violence but he's no suicidal fanatic. He's shown again and again that he's willing to negotiate for a share of power and only uses force if he's excluded from power or his fundamental aims (mainly the withdrawal of US and British forces).

He's also said repeatedly he wants an alliance of Sunnis and Shias.

It seems to me that the reason the Bush admin have been so keen to get rid of him is that he could negotiate such an alliance and end their justification for keeping bases in Iraq (supposedly to prevent civil war but actually to act as a garrison to prop up or pressurise client governments in the Middle East and ensure control of oil supplies - or at least , if they can't get that, deny them to China and Russia)

calgacus said...

Oh also i saw another former Labour MP you might remember recently - John Lyons. I asked him if he knew you and he said he remembered you. He's working on resolving disputes between FirstGroup and various unions (mostly the Teamsters) in the US at the moment - put a post about it on my website -
http://www.duncanmcfarlane.org/Cohen-Lyons

Harry Barnes said...

Calgacus: its a pity John lost out to re-distribution.

I am not an enthusiast for Al Sadr, nor was I such for Gerry Adams. But I did negotiate with Adams on a specific issue and would be for acting in a similar way in similar circumstances with Al Sadr. US permanent bases are unacceptable in any settlement.

Harry Barnes said...

Duncan; on our Iraqi Trade Union discussions, I don't know whether you followed the debate on my stuff at "Harry's Place" -
http://hurryupharry.bloghouse.net/archives/2007/08/05/harry_barness_report_on_iraqs_trade_unions.php

calgacus said...

I din't but i'll take a look Harry

calgacus said...

Of course i'm not a Gerry Adams fan either and i dont know enough about Al Sadr to know exactly what he is or isnt involved in - i doubt many people do - but i agree with you that he could be included in an Iraqi peace process - and i doubt one could succeed without him.