Azerbaijan, Baku, May 5 /Trend News, U.Sadikhova, R.Hafizoglu/
The visit of the leader of Shiite resistance of Iraq Muktada Al-Sadr to Turkey will strengthen Al-Sadr’s position as a political leader and weaken the influence of Iran on the Shiite party of Iraq, experts say.
“With his position, Al-Sadr showed that he moved from the level of a religious figure to the political level, Turkish leading analyst on the Middle East, Mustafa Ozcan told Trend News in a telephone conversation from Istanbul. – Al-Sadr seeks to strengthen in the internal policy of Iraq, therefore, it is not excluded that he wants to weaken the influence of Iran.
In the end of last week, former Head of Mahdi Army, Al-Sadr, who has resisted the U.S. presence in Iraq, discussed with the Turkish President Abdullah Gul and Prime Minister Rajap Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara the question of establishing stability in Iraq, as well as the upcoming elections in Iraq in December 2009, TRT Russian website reported.
Al-Sadr’s visit to Turkey was the first public appearance of the leader of the Shiite resistance since 2007, supporters of whom – “sadrities” – took 28 out of 275 seats in the Iraqi Parliament.
Al-Sadr was the top of the list of persons searched by the USA after a series of explosions, organized by his supporters in the Iraqi cities. He also opposed the agreement on security between Baghdad and Washington, envisaging the stay of the American troops in the country by the end of 2011.
Analysts believe that Al-Sadr is interested in strengthening ties with Ankara, which maintains the same attitude towards all political and religious groups in Iraq.
Al-Sadr supported preserving the unity of Iraq and non-division of the country into autonomies, said Joost Hiltermann, an analyst on the Iraq policy.
“The forces inside Iraq that save a stronger central state and the national Iraqi identity are more eager to meet with neighboring states that also saver to Iraq staying as a single country,” Hiltermann, deputy director of the Middle East program at the International Crisis Group, told Trend News in a telephone conversation from Istanbul.
He said that it is not excluded that this visit is directed against some Iraqi Shiites, who focused on the decentralization of Iraq.
Analysts regard al-Sadr’s position as his move from the category of religious leaders to the political category, given the dissolution of the religious Shiite movement Mahdi Army, which is based in major cities Mosul and Kerbala.
Ozcan believes that al-Sadr wants to create a political party like the Lebanese Shiite party Hezbollah.
Al-Sadr’s interest in the upcoming elections in Iraq and the presence of 30 supporters in parliament show a desire to strengthen its position as a political leader, experts said.
His visit to Turkey will help to join the ranks of political leaders of Iraq, to which Ankara maintains a neutral attitude, said a leading analyst for the Middle East Husni al-Makhally.
“Visit [Al-Sadr], in Sunni country [Turkey] is very important to most of Iraq’s internal problems,” al-Makhally told Trend News over phone from Istanbul.
He did not rule out that the visit is aimed at weakening Iran’s influence in Iraq, which is among the Shiite political and religious factions.
Iran has close ties with Shiite communities Kerbala and Najaf, and also liaises with the Government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, the Shia by the origin and leader of Al-Dawa party.
Sadrities seek to weaken Iran’s influence and consider communications between Baghdad and Ankara as important relations with Tehran, believes al-Makhally.
Mustafa Ozcan also does not exclude that the United States welcome the visit of al-Sadr to Turkey, as it puts off Iran from the internal politics of Iraq.
Al-Sadr himself is not enthusiastic about the influence of Iran, and therefore wants to put an end to Iran’s influence on domestic politics of Iraq “-said Ozcan.
In March, President of Turkey Abdullah Gul traveled to Iraq – for the first time over 33 years of relations between the two countries. Ankara, receiving Sadr after President Gul’s visit to Baghdad, once again proved how important it for political unity and territorial integrity of Iraq
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Source: news-en.trend.az, May 5 2009
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