SADRIST TEMPORARY WITHDRAWAL FROM IRAQ'S

C O N F I D E N T I A L BAGHDAD 004461

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/04/2016
TAGS: PGOV IZ
SUBJECT: SADRIST TEMPORARY WITHDRAWAL FROM IRAQ'S
GOVERNMENT COMMENCES

REF: BAGHDAD 4405

Classified By: Acting Deputy Chief of Mission Margaret Scobey for reaso
ns 1.4 (b) and (d).


1. (U) Iraq,s Sadrists have commenced their "temporary
withdrawal" from the government as they promised in a press
statement after Prime Minister Maliki met with President Bush
in Amman on November 30. None of the five Sadrist ministers
attended the Council of Ministers meeting on December 3.
Contacts have told us that the Ministers of Agriculture and
Health and the Ministers of State for Governorate Affairs and
for Tourism and Antiquities did not come to their offices but
were instead working "from home" or "from outside." (NOTE:
The Minister of Agriculture is the acting Minister of
Transportation. END NOTE)


2. (U) Although many of the 30 Sadrist MPs were present in
the cafeteria of the Council of Representatives (CoR) on
December 5, including Legal Committee chair Baha al-Araji and
Falah al-Shenshal, they did not enter the chamber. (Note and
comment: The CoR did not hold a session on December 5, the
first day of this week it was scheduled to meet, because it
did not achieve quorum. We believe that approximately 163
MPs, including the Sadrists, "signed in," but the number in
the chamber when the roll was called never reached 138.
While quorum would probably have been reached if all the
Sadrist delegates present in the cafeteria had entered the
chamber, it would be wrong to attribute the lack of quorum
solely to their boycott. There are 275 MPs, of whom 245 are
not Sadrists; therefore, at least 107 non-Sadrist MPs were
not in the room during roll call. End note and comment.)


3. (C) Asked by PolOff what the Prime Minister's strategy
for dealing with the Sadrist "temporary withdrawal" was, PM
advisor Sadiq al-Rikabi noted that Iraq was a free country
and that the Sadrists could choose whether to be in or out of
the government. The PM echoed these comments in his December
5 press conference when he answered a question about the
Sadrists' decision to boycott, "I have repeatedly said that
these issues are up to the current, parties, and movements.
They are free to consider things the way they like in today's
Iraq that allows for freedom of opinion and pluralism."
Al-Rikabi said that there was "confusion" within the ranks of
the Sadrists, with some of them dissatisfied with the
"temporary withdrawal" decision. (Note: Legal Committee
Rapporteur Muhammed Shareef told poloffs that Committee Chair
Baha al-Ariji expressed his disagreement in private with the
Sadrist boycott. End note.) The PM, al-Rikabi continued,
planned to give the Sadrist ministers "a limited time" to
reconsider their decision. If they did not return to work
after this "limited time", al-Rikabi implied, the PM would
replace them. (COMMENT: Rumors and reports of cabinet
changes involving the Sadrist ministers have been ongoing for
weeks, and the PM noted in his press conference that he
intended to seek some changes in his government, but he did
not single out the Sadrists. END COMMENT).


4. (SBU) CoR Speaker Mahmoud Mashhadani told MPs on December
5 that he had formed a small committee (comprised of three
MPs, one each from Tawafuq, the Shi'a coalition, and the
Kurdish Alliance) to persuade the Sadrist MPs to return to
the CoR.
Khalilzad