An excellent interview, taped a few days ago before the Basra clashes started, was aired on Al-Jazeera channel a couple of hours ago. Al-Sadr predicts, and correctly so, that the ruling parties will do their best to prevent the provincial elections from happening. I'm not sure he expected that the Maliki/Hakim, backed by the US/UK, will send 50,000 troops to Basra to do that though.
There were a number of important analysis and announcements. i think the most important points were:
* repeating Al-Sadr movement's objection to partitioning Iraq, or to have any form of sectarian/ethnic-based politics.
* stating very clearly that Al-Sadr movement is against any type of foreign intervention. Asked about what he thinks of the Iranian role in Iraq, he said that he has met Ayatollah Khamenei in person and told him that Al-Sadr movement is NOT a military or political extension of Iran in Iraq. He was very clearly critical of Iran's negative intervention in Iraq, but noted that he still tries to keep a good relationship with Iran.
This interview is another example of how the majority of Iraqi Shiites are not by definition loyal to Iran. In fact, the few Iraqi Shiites who are indeed loyal to Iran are the separatists allied to the US government.
For Arabic speakers, you can listen to the interview here. For non-Arabic speakers, learn Arabic.
on a last note, one of the news I read today on a number of websites and newspapers affiliated with Al-Sadr movement was that Al-Mahdi Army has captured 3 Iranian snipers in Basra, and were planning to execute them. The original source of the news is not very credible, but it shows a growing tension between the Sadists (and other nationalists) and the Iranian role in Iraq.
