Word: sciri
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...aide to broker the deal that put the major Shiite religious parties, and many secularists and independents, under one umbrella in the United Iraqi Alliance (UIA). The UIA's electoral list is headed by Abdel-Aziz al-Hakim, leader of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), and its dominant figures include the top leaders of the Dawa party. The list also includes a handful of representatives of Sunni and Kurdish minorities, and independents ranging from former Pentagon favorite Ahmed Chalabi to individuals associated with the radical cleric Moqtada Sadr, whose forces have repeatedly clashed with...
...national character and its backing by the clerical leadership and the two most popular parties in Iraq (SCIRI and the Dawa) make the Iraqi United Alliance favorites to emerge as the largest bloc in the National Assembly - particularly given the fact that substantial numbers of Sunnis are expected to stay away from the polls, thereby amplifying the power of the Shiite vote. Not all Shiites will vote for the UIA list, of course, but it is well-placed to carry a majority of them. Allawi has the advantage of greater access to the government-controlled media, but the Shiite list...
...while Shaalan's suggestion that the IUA is an "Iranian list" smacks of partisan mudslinging - the SCIRI and Dawa, after all, participate at cabinet level in Allawi's government, and served in the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council before that - both groups are certainly closer to Tehran, where they were based during their years in exile, than they are to Washington. U.S. officials have drawn comfort from the fact that Sistani, and much of the Iraqi Shiite clerical establishment, opposes the Iranian view that clerics ought to hold political power. Leaders of both SCIRI and Dawa have been somewhat ambiguous...
...tried to arrest Sadr in April on murder charges. While Moqtada lacks the clerical status to compete with Sistani in the religious sphere, he is first and foremost a politician - while purporting to accept Sistani's leadership in the spiritual sphere, Moqtada is plainly competing with the political parties (SCIRI and Dawa) closest to Sistani, and doing rather well in that race right...
...officials say their strategy in Najaf and elsewhere has worked to turn powerful Shiites against Sadr. It's certainly true that two of his key rivals, the SCIRI and Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, have called with increasingly insistence for Sadr's men leave the shrine cities. But they're also calling on the U.S. to do the same, and have shied away from armed confrontations with the Sadrists. The rebel cleric clearly believes he can make the U.S. strategy work to his advantage because military actions in Karbala and Najaf deepens the hostility of ordinary Shiites towards the Coalition, potentially...