Word: sadr
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...rocket attacks from Gaza. Meanwhile, the unofficial contacts that people like Malley have with Hamas are extremely valuable. They are the avatars of negotiation. In Iraq, the U.S. military has had quiet talks with everyone from the Sunni insurgents in Fallujah in 2004 to the "special groups" in Sadr City today. Our European partners meet surreptitiously with Hamas - the British diplomat Sir Jeremy Greenstock has publicly acknowledged having such meetings. Furthermore, talks with Hamas have been advocated by a broad swath of notable Israelis - including a former head of Mossad, a former foreign minister and Ariel Sharon's former national...
...parliamentarians Monday. "The events of the past weeks have proven that we are neutral, not biased, that we did not take the side of this party or this sect against another," said Maliki, whose government has waged a two-month crackdown on the militia of onetime ally Moqtada al-Sadr. "We have also proven there is no security for any sect unless other sects can be guaranteed their security...
Already he suffers in the shadow of Iraq's most popular nationalist, Moqtada al-Sadr. Fighting between U.S.-backed Iraqi forces and guerrilla fighters in Sadr City flared again Monday despite the announcement over the weekend of a cease-fire. On the afternoon Maliki spoke, sporadic clashes in Sadr City left at least 11 dead and 19 wounded - and opened the question of whether the Prime Minister has the ability to make peace at all anymore...
...fact that a leading figure in al-Sadr's ranks announced the deal and pointedly rejected the Iraqi government's key demand to disarm suggests that the cleric is still controlling the agenda tactically and politically despite the most serious challenge his power the Iraqi government could muster. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki set out to break the back of the Mahdi Army in March, when he launched an offensive against areas the militia controls in the southern city of Basra. The Mahdi Army fought Iraqi forces to a standstill there while unleashing a daily hail of rockets...
...long this new cease-fire will last is uncertain. Al-Sadr declared a cease-fire unilaterally last year only to see al-Maliki ignore it with the initial strike in Basra. But one thing is clear: the latest pause in the running fight between al-Sadr and the U.S.-backed Iraqi government offers no visible solutions to the problems at the root of the conflict. Al-Maliki wants to disband the Mahdi Army, or at least de-fang it, before provincial elections in the fall. The bloody nose the Mahdi Army gave al-Maliki in the latest crisis shows...