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Al-Sadr rejects Iraqi constitution

* Influential Shia cleric maintains anti-US stand

BAGHDAD: Influential Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr said he rejects the Iraqi constitution backed by his partners in the biggest parliamentary bloc, threatening to reignite one of the country’s most explosive issues.

“I reject this constitution which calls for sectarianism and there is nothing good in this constitution at all,” he told Al Jazeera television late on Saturday.

Sadr, a rebel leader turned political kingmaker, said the charter was unacceptable, complicating efforts to form a government more than two months after parliamentary elections.

“If there is a democratic government in Iraq, nobody has the right to call for the establishment of federalism anywhere in Iraq whether it is the south, north, middle or any other part of Iraq,” said Sadr His stand could give political ammunition to Iraq’s Arab Sunnis, who want major amendments to a charter they fear will give Shias and Kurds too much power and control over oil resources.

The young cleric, who led two armed uprisings against US and Iraqi troops, has emerged as a potent force in Iraqi politics, joining the powerful United Iraqi Alliance (UIA), which won 128 of 275 seats in parliament in Dec 15 polls. A swing vote by Sadr’s supporters in a UIA ballot on its candidate for prime minister is likely to keep the Dawa party’s Ibrahim al-Jaafari in the top job in government.

The Shias, who will have a majority in the new assembly, have already insisted there can be no major changes to the charter, which was approved in October and envisages a federal Iraq with considerable autonomy for the regions. A review of the Iraqi constitution is set to start some time after the new government and parliament is formed.

Sadr’s rejection of the charter could put him at the heart of one of the most sensitive sectarian issues in Iraq, where he is seen as an unpredictable but popular leader. Sadr rose to prominence after the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 by mobilising his Mehdi Army militia to fight American troops and by speaking out for poor Shias. His uprisings against US troops made him one of the few Shia leaders to gain the respect of minority Sunnis, who dominated Iraq under Saddam Hussein and have led the insurgency against US troops and the new Iraqi government.

Although Sadr has said his Mehdi Army was always ready to fight, he has manoeuvred through political minefields to a position where he can make or break Iraqi leaders. reuters

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