Word: sistani
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...almost everyone involved views their presence as necessary for months, if not years, to come. "If you go anywhere in Iraq," says a senior U.S. military official in Baghdad, "Iraqis who hate the occupation say they don't want U.S. forces to leave." Even Shi'ite leader Ayatullah Sistani has intimated that U.S. troops are still needed to stabilize the country...
...three days of mourning. Then on Friday evening, as a sextet from the National Symphony Orchestra tuned up the national anthem and accompanied children from Baghdad's School of Music and Ballet, the landmark agreement fell apart. For the third time since November, the powerful Ayatullah Sistani spoiled Washington's plans. Each time his purpose seemed to be to ensure that the Shi'ites would emerge as Iraq's dominant leaders...
...from the anticipated rapturous welcome, the U.S. mission in Iraq has been confounded by Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, the most influential spiritual leader among Iraq's Shiite Muslim majority. Sistani managed to scrap two U.S. transition plans and has now made clear that he wants the interim constitution signed last Monday amended before it takes effect on June 30, to eliminate the de facto veto power it grants the Kurdish minority over a permanent constitution. Sistani did, however, advise his supporters on the Iraqi Governing Council to sign the document, because failure to do so would have provoked a crisis...
...opposed to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's kind that rules in Iran, has a 'thick wall' between mosque and state." The same officials are quoted as hoping that the Iraqi Shiites based at Najaf become the antidote to the Iranian mullahs. Again, half right: The Najaf leadership headed by Sistani do not maintain the Khomeinist principle of Wilayat al-Faqih (the rule by Islamic jurisprudence). That didn't stop the most influential Shiite leader on the Iraqi Governing Council, Ayatollah Abdul Aziz al-Hakim of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, praising that doctrine of clerical rule just...
...government created through carefully selected caucuses by insisting that Iraqis be allowed to vote for the body that writes their constitution. Compromising on the Basic Law, and even on how to constitute the interim authority that takes the baton from Bremer on July 1 was relatively simple for Ayatollah Sistani and his supporters, since they recognize these as a caretaker arrangement bridging the brief interlude between the transfer of sovereignty and the holding of elections. Because they make up almost two-thirds of Iraq's population, the Shiites see a democratic election as the best means to prevail...