{"id":293,"date":"2007-05-18T11:03:53","date_gmt":"2007-05-18T16:03:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=293"},"modified":"2007-05-18T11:07:40","modified_gmt":"2007-05-18T16:07:40","slug":"an-iraqi-shiite-readjustment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=293","title":{"rendered":"An Iraqi Shiite “Readjustment”?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Something is brewing in the worl<\/title>Something is brewing in the world of US-Shiite relations, but I confess that the contours of any shift remain very murky.<\/p>\n<p>As noted in my <a href=\"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=292\">previous post<\/a>, there has been increased chatter about tensions between Iraqi Shiites and the Iranian regime.\u00c2\u00a0 Reuters reported:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Iraq’s biggest Shi’ite party on Saturday pledged its allegiance to the \tcountry’s top Shi’ite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, in a move that \twould distance it from Shi’ite Iran where it was formed.<\/p>\n<p>Party officials told Reuters on Friday… the party had been close to \tSistani for some time, but a two-day conference on Baghdad that ended on \tFriday had formalized relations with the influential cleric.<\/p>\n<p>“We cherish the great role played by the religious establishment headed by \tGrand Ayatollah Sayed Ali al-Sistani … in preserving the unity of Iraq and \tthe blood of Iraqis and in helping them building a political system based on \tthe constitution and law,” said Rida Jawad al-Takki, a senior group member, \twho read out the party’s decisions to reporters…<\/p>\n<p>Officials said the party, which was formed in Iran in the 1980s to oppose \tSaddam, had previously taken its guidance from the religious establishment \tof Welayat al Faqih, led by the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in \tIran.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Anne Barnard of the <em>Boston Globe<\/em> followed up with <a href=\"http:\/\/www.boston.com\/news\/world\/middleeast\/articles\/2007\/05\/14\/shiite_cleric_gains_sway_across_border\/\"> additional talk<\/a> of popular Iranian Shiite support for Sistani.<\/p>\n<p>At the governmental level, the US has been urging and predicting such an Iraqi Shiite shift for some time.\u00c2\u00a0 In January 2007 <a href=\"http:\/\/iraq.usembassy.gov\/iraq\/10070115_zal_casey.html\">press briefing<\/a>, Zalmay Khalilzad described a “readjustment” underway among Iraqi Shiites:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>AMBASSADOR KHALILZAD: I think the <strong>Iraqis are going through a \treadjustment process<\/strong> \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and by Iraqis I mean different political forces. \tThere is no problem in terms of understanding between us and the Prime \tMinister. <strong>In the past<\/strong>, before Saddam Hussein was overthrown, a number \tof <strong>groups opposed to the regime operated from outside Iraq and they \tdeveloped relations with some of the institutions and organizations of the \tneighboring states<\/strong> that supported them, and those are almost invariably \t<strong>security institutions<\/strong>. <strong>But now<\/strong> Iraqi is in a different place. \tIt is a state that some of those people who were opposed are now in the \tgovernment and <strong>there cannot be and there should not be relations with \tsecurity institutions of neighboring states that work against the interests \tof this new Iraq<\/strong>; that attack Coalition forces, Iraqis, undermine the \tstability of Iraq.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Right Zionists celebrated news that such a “readjustment” might have led to a rift between Iraqi Shiite politicians and the Iranian regime.\u00c2\u00a0 <em>FrontPage<\/em> predicted the US was “<a href=\"http:\/\/www.frontpagemag.com\/Articles\/ReadArticle.asp?ID=28345\">Turning the Corner in Iraq<\/a>“:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>[B]ad news for Iran is the seismic shift of Iraq\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s largest political \tparty away from Iran…<\/p>\n<p>In fact, what exists is a deep rivalry between the revolutionary Iranian \tSupreme Leader Ayatollah Khameini and the traditionalist Grand Ayatollah \tSistani, both claiming authority over the Shi\u00e2\u20ac\u2122a faith….<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><font face=\"Times New Roman\">And yet, the signs do not all run in the same direction.<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font face=\"Times New Roman\">First, the <em>FrontPage<\/em> writer, Steve Schippert proposes that some sober “caution” is in order:<\/font><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><font face=\"Times New Roman\">While it is difficult to understate the \tsignificance of the monumental shift within Iraq, it should also be \trecognized that the decision to transform the Supreme Council for Islamic \tRevolution in Iraq into simply the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council was not \tarrived at with unanimity.\u00c2\u00a0 Nor was it arrived at without heated debate.\u00c2\u00a0 As \twell, many of the SCIRI party\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s elected government officials have ties and \tallegiances to Iran that are unlikely to simply evaporate overnight.<\/font><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><font face=\"Times New Roman\">The factional lines within SCIRI\/SIIC are not clear, but <a href=\"http:\/\/www.iraqslogger.com\/index.php\/post\/2755\">IraqSlogger<\/a> cast doubt on the entire story of an Iraqi Shiite shift:<\/font><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><font face=\"Times New Roman\">The media bureau of the Supreme Islamic \tIraqi Council, formerly SCIRI, issued a statement late Saturday correcting \twhat it described as \u00e2\u20ac\u0153dubious remarks attributed to senior SCIRI officials\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \tand \u00e2\u20ac\u0153inaccurate analysis\u00e2\u20ac\u009d made by media outlets, referring to reports that \tthe party would distance itself from neighboring Iran.<\/font><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><font face=\"Times New Roman\">It can be difficult for any leader to deal with organizational factionalism, but SCIRI\/SIIC leader Abdel Aziz al-Hakim seems to be taking it all very hard.<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font face=\"Times New Roman\">The Associated Press is <a href=\"http:\/\/www.iht.com\/articles\/ap\/2007\/05\/18\/africa\/ME-GEN-Iraq-Shiite-Politician.php\"> reporting<\/a> that al-Hakim is suddenly on his way to the US:<\/font><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The leader of Iraq’s largest Shiite political party has left for the \tUnited States for medical checkups after complaining of exhaustion and high \tblood pressure, two officials said Friday.<\/p>\n<p>Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim flew to the United States on Wednesday, according to \tone official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not \tauthorized to speak to the media.<\/p>\n<p>The official, who works at al-Hakim’s office, declined to give further \tdetails. But a senior member of the Shiite leader’s party, the Supreme \tIslamic Council of Iraq, said al-Hakim was suffering from fatigue and high \tblood pressure.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><font face=\"Times New Roman\">Maybe he will also use his time in the US to “clarify” the position of his party, in light of the current confusion and the prospect of factional divisions.<\/font><\/p>\n<p>And, finally, there is the question of the alleged rivalry between Sistani, on the one hand, and Khameini and the incumbent Iranian regime, on the other.<\/p>\n<p><font face=\"Times New Roman\">According to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.khaleejtimes.com\/DisplayArticleNew.asp?xfile=data\/focusoniraq\/2007\/May\/focusoniraq_May104.xml&section=focusoniraq\"> recent reports<\/a>, Sistani has welcomed upcoming talks between the US and the Iranian regime:<\/font><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><font face=\"Times New Roman\">Planned talks between the United States and \tIran in Baghdad are \u00e2\u20ac\u0153the first promising step for free and direct bilateral \ttalks\u00e2\u20ac\u009d between the two adversaries, a cleric close to Iraqi Shia leader \tGrand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani said on Friday.<\/p>\n<p>In his Friday sermon in a Najaf mosque, Shia Imam Sadr Eddin al- Qabanji \texpressed hope that the Iranian-US talks would lead to peace between the US \tand Iran…<\/font><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><font face=\"Times New Roman\"> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.zmag.org\/content\/showarticle.cfm?ItemID=10185\">Right Zionists<\/a> love Sistani.\u00c2\u00a0 But not all Right Zionists seem to share Sistani’s enthusiasm for US-Iranian diplomacy.<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font face=\"Times New Roman\">Richard Perle, in particular, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nysun.com\/pf.php?id=54448&v=6529949711\">seems pretty bitter<\/a> about the prospect of US talks with Iran:<\/font><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Richard Perle offered a withering assessment of the president’s impotence \tat a meeting of the Hudson Institute in New York, saying American foreign \tpolicy is being applied by an out-of-control State Department….<\/p>\n<p>“We have already seen a change in policy towards Iran,” he said. “It is \tnow firmly back in the hands of the Department of State.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Ultimately, Right Zionists are committed to the restoration of the old US-Israeli-Iranian strategic alliance.\u00c2\u00a0 The question is whether that could ever mean peace with the incumbent Iranian regime or only peace with “<a href=\"http:\/\/www.aei.org\/books\/filter.all,bookID.826\/book_detail.asp\">eternal Iran<\/a>.”<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps al-Hakim will be discussing that very question during his visit to the United States.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Something is brewing in the worlSomething is brewing in the world of US-Shiite relations, but I confess that the contours of any shift remain very murky. As noted in my previous post, there has been increased chatter about tensions between Iraqi Shiites and the Iranian regime.\u00c2\u00a0 Reuters reported: Iraq’s biggest Shi’ite party on Saturday pledged […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6,3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=293"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}