SADR OFFERS MAHDI MILITIA TO SISTANI AS SHRINE PROTECTION

C O N F I D E N T I A L HILLAH 000033

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 3/1/2016
TAGS: PGOV PREL KISL IZ
SUBJECT: SADR OFFERS MAHDI MILITIA TO SISTANI AS SHRINE PROTECTION
FORCE; CALLS FOR BAGHDAD UNITY RALLY


CLASSIFIED BY: Alfred Fonteneau, Regional Coordinator, REO
Hillah, Department of State.
REASON: 1.4 (b),(d)




1. (U) This is a SET Najaf cable.


2. (C) Summary: Moqtada Al-Sadr, meeting with a group of senior
ayatollahs in the Najaf home of Grand Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani,
offered his Mahdi Militia as a holy shrine protection force.
Sadr also volunteered to deploy his militia to protect the
senior clerics themselves in the March 1 meeting. Sistani called
for Shi'a and Sunnis to work together peacefully to protect the
holy shrines. The night before, Sadr's Kufa office began
distributing flyers publishing Sadr's call for a rally for Iraqi
unity in Baghdad's Ferdous Square on March 11. End summary.


3. (C) According to Sayid Haider Al-Turfi, a Sadrist cleric who
spoke to local SET Najaf staff, Sadr and an aide met on March 1
with Grand Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani, Sistani's son Mohammed
Ridha, Ayatollah Mohammed Saeed Al-Hakim, Ayatollah Bashir
Al-Najafi and Sayid Al-Ghuraifi, the cleric in charge of the
Imam Ali Shrine Protection Force. (Note: Sadr's aide may have
been Shaykh Abdul Hadi Al-Daragi, a cleric in Sadr's Baghdad
Office, but the source was not certain. End note.) The meeting
took place in Sistani's Old City, Najaf home.


4. (C) The meeting reportedly began with pleasantries. Sadr
offered his condolences to the clerics for the bombing of the
Al-Askariyah Shrine in Samarra. Sistani congratulated Sadr on
completing the pilgrimage to Mecca. Sadr answered that the
purpose of his pilgrimage was to form links between Iraq and
other Arab nations and to serve Islam.


5. (C) Sistani stressed that the Shi'a and Sunni must work
together to protect Islam's holy places and to work for peace.
He also called for the tribes to have a role in this. Sadr
responded by offering his Mahdi Militia to protect the holy
shrines and the homes of the ayatollahs. Sistani did not respond
to this offer, and the conversation reportedly moved on to other
topics.


6. (C) Sadr told Sistani that a delegation from the (Sunni)
Association of Muslim Scholars had asked to travel to Najaf to
meet with the Marja'iyah in order to strengthen the links
between both sides and to calm sectarianism. Sadr's aide offered
that Sunni and Shi'a politicians and parliamentarians from
Baghdad would likely join the delegation. (Note: The National
Iraqi News Agency, a Baghdad-based internet newswire, carried a
story March 1 quoting a Baghdad Sadrist, Fadhil Al-Sharaa
speaking about this visit. Al-Sharaa welcomed the proposal of
the Association of Muslim Scholars to visit Najaf and the
clerics there in an effort to reduce sectarian strife. End
note.)


7. (C) The night before the meeting, on February 28, Sadr's Kufa
office began distributing flyers publicizing Sadr's call for an
Iraqi unity rally on March 11 in Baghdad's Ferdous Square.
Sadr's order read:

"Brothers, The Prophet of Allah, Mohammed, deserves all loyalty
and sacrifice and Iraq deserves all of the good.
I call all of the Iraqi brothers, without segregation, to
protest to discard ethnicity, and for Iraq, and for our Prophet
and his followers, to rise with our country to freedom,
independence, stability and safety. The protest will be on
Saturday, March 11, 2006 in Ferdous Square, where the old regime
fell, and let your motto be 'Islam, Peace, and Unity,' and raise
the Iraqi flag because it is a symbol of this unity."


8. (C) Comment: This meeting, if reported accurately, would seem
to mark another step in what appear to be recent efforts by
Moqtada Al-Sadr to present himself both to Iraqis and the larger
Arab world as a bridge-building statesman, rather than a
polarizing firebrand. It remains to be seen whether these
efforts are sincere. Also uncertain is how much Sadr's calls for
unity are calculated to form a united Sunni-Shi'a front pushing
for the immediate withdrawal of Coalition Forces in Iraq, a
venerable Sadr refrain that has remained even as he offers new
calls for peace. End comment.

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