Word: hakim
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...efforts to either detach Maliki from his key patron - Sadr, whose militia is in the thick of much of the sectarian violence - or else persuade Shi'ite rivals such as Abdulaziz al-Hakim to form a new coalition with the Sunnis and Kurds, excluding Maliki and Sadr, appear to be floundering. Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, the supreme Shi'ite spiritual leader whose expressed will neither Maliki nor Hakim can cross, has made clear that he will not tolerate any moves that break the unity of the ruling Shi'ite coalition that includes Maliki, Hakim and Sadr...
...politicians such as radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr and President Bush's recent visitor, Abdel-Aziz al-Hakim, are also keen to see the Americans back off. With U.S. forces no longer in charge, there will be no restraining the Shi'ite militias - including those controlled by al-Sadr and al-Hakim - from bullying and butchering the Sunni minority. In Washington, al-Hakim was careful to emphasize he doesn't want Americans to leave. But Shi'ite leaders want the U.S. to focus on defeating the Sunni insurgency, not on the Shi'ite militias...
...Like other Shi'ite politicians - including Prime Minister al-Maliki - al-Hakim believes the U.S. military and Iraqi security forces should be expending their entire resources and energies in crushing the Sunni insurgency. That will likely be his message to President Bush...
...Hakim is also unlikely to go along with some of the other suggestions that, according to leaked reports, will be put forward by the bipartisan Iraq Study Group in Washington aimed at remedying the situation. He has, for instance, dismissed the idea of an international conference to discuss Iraq's problems. "We think it is neither reasonable nor correct to discuss questions relating to Iraq in the framework of international conferences," he told journalists in Amman, while en route to Washington. And he reiterated that message at the White House...
...What Bush may have been able to glean from al-Hakim, however, was some sense of how Tehran views developments in Iraq. Having spent many years living in Iran, al-Hakim is plugged into the political and religious currents in the Islamic Republic. Bush has dismissed direct talks with Iran, but it would be a smart idea to listen to Tehran's proxies...