TOP SHIA CLERGY URGE THE FAITHFUL TO APPROVE

C O N F I D E N T I A L BAGHDAD 003945

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/23/2025
TAGS: IZ KISL PGOV
SUBJECT: TOP SHIA CLERGY URGE THE FAITHFUL TO APPROVE
CONSTITUTION

Classified By: POL COUNS Robert Ford, reason 1.4 (d)


1. (C) Grand Ayatollah Sistani, and other top Shia clerics
in Najaf,
publicly have urged Iraqis to approve the draft
constitution. A
member of the Shia Coalition in the National Assembly, Ali
Debbagh,
told PolCouns that he had met Sistani's son, Mohammed Reda,
on 9/22.
Mohammed Reda said that Sistani's office had issued the
guidance about
voting for the draft in the form of a response to a question
submitted
to the Grand Ayatollah. The guidance reportedly is very
short -
simply an affirmation that the draft merits the approval of
the Iraqi
voter.


2. (C) Debbagh said that he had asked Mohammed Reda if
Debbagh should
try to put out word of the Grand Ayatollah's guidance on the
media,
such as the widely watched al-Arabiyah TV network. According
to
Debbagh, Mohammed Reda had declined, reasoning that Iraq's
Sunni Arabs
would react negatively if it appeared to them that the Grand
Ayatollah
was supporting the draft too strongly. Debbagh also claimed
that
Mohammed Reda had said that if it appeared that the draft
would be
defeated in the October 15 referendum Sistani's office might
issue
stronger guidance to the Shia faithful.


3. (C) Debbagh added that he attended a forum in Karbala on
the
evening of 9/22 at which the attendees expressed solid
support for
the draft constitution; he stated that after Friday prayers
in
Karbala on 9/23 there were several small demonstrations
pledging to
support it at the October 15 poll.


4. (C) Comment: Shia Islamist party SCIRI's Furat
television,
which broke the news about the Sistani guidance on 9/22
evening,
reported on the afternoon of 9/23 that the other top Najaf
Shia
clerics, ayatollahs Mohammed Said al-Hakim, Ishaq
al-Fayyad and Bashir an-Najafi, also have come out in support
of
the draft constitution. The unity among the top Najaf clergy
will
make it more difficult for lesser Shia clerics, such as the
often unpredictable Muqtada as-Sadr, to oppose the draft
constitution.
Khalilzad