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| Iraq |
| Iraq's Sadrists say Maliki can remain as PM |
| 2010-05-16 |
| NAJAF - The political bloc of Iraqi cleric Moqtada al-Sadr said on Saturday it had dropped its veto of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki keeping his job, eliminating a major hurdle to him staying in office. A spokesman for Sadr, who is in self-imposed exile in Iran, said Maliki had not yet agreed to conditions that 2,000 of his followers be released but that the movement was not fundamentally against him continuing as premier. “The Sadr movement does not object to Nuri al-Maliki taking the position of prime minister again but we have conditions,' Saleh al-Obeidi told AFP from the holy Shiite city of Najaf in southern Iraq. “Maliki has not yet succeeded in giving us assurances about these conditions, which include (stopping) continuous arrests against Sadrists.' Maliki, a Shiite, finished narrowly behind former premier Iyad Allawi, also a Shiite but whose secular Iraqiya coalition had strong support in Sunni-dominated areas, in a March 7 general election. Following the election Sadr said in a television interview he had “tried not to have a veto against anyone, but the masses had a veto against Maliki.' Several of Sadr's public statements, delivered by spokesmen or senior aides, have also been highly critical of Maliki. |
| Posted by:Steve White |