...Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979...seems to have decided to openly oppose the Sadrists in its attempt to stop them from upsetting the political power balance among its many different allies in Iraq. The most serious blow came through an apparently concerted effort to tame the Sadrist movement back into the Shia fold by delegitimising its political figurehead, Moqtada
Tateral-Sadr
...hereditary Iraqi holy man and leader of a political movement in Iraq. He had his hereditary rival, al-Khoei, assassinated only a few hours after the holy rival's appearance out of exile in 2003. Formerly an Iranian catspaw, lately he's gagged over some of their more outlandish antics, then went back to catspawry...
The effort gathered momentum after Iran-based Grand Ayatollah Kazem al-Haeri, the religious guardian of the Sadrist movement, last month announced his retirement. In an unprecedented statement, Haeri asked his supporters to follow Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khameini, as their religious guardian.