IRAQ: Rebel Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr said yesterday he would support Iraq's new interim government if it paid more heed to Iraqi public opinion and less to US-led occupiers.
Al-Sadr's comments appeared to mark a softening of his stance towards the government, which he had initially rejected after it was formed on June 1st to lead Iraq out of US occupation.
"I want to direct my words at the so-called interim government, which is part of Iraqi society, for in my view it has made mistakes," al-Sadr's deputy, Sheikh Jaber al-Khafaji said in his Friday sermon, speaking on behalf of al-Sadr.
"This government spends most of its time abroad. The government and rulers must draw closer to the people and not the opposite, which harms both sides," he told worshippers in Kufa, near the holy city of Najaf.
Iraq's new President, Sheikh Ghazi al-Yawar, urged al-Sadr this week to lay down his arms and enter politics, a prospect which the US President, Mr Bush, said he would not oppose. US forces had previously vowed to kill or capture al-Sadr, who launched a revolt against US forces in April that engulfed southern Iraq and Shi'ite shrines. Hundreds of people were killed in the fighting.
Al-Sadr ordered his fighters to return home this week in what appeared to mark the end of the 10-week rebellion, having agreed to a truce with US forces in early June under pressure from Shi'ite leaders appalled by fighting near holy shrines.
The US-led administration says al-Sadr must answer to an arrest warrant issued by an Iraqi court over the murder of a rival cleric in Najaf last year.
Leaders in Iraq's interim government say Iraqis will resolve the matter.
A US-appointed Iraqi judge has issued an arrest warrant for one of the fiercest opponents of the former President, Saddam Hussein, in connection with murder, politicians and lawyers familiar with the case said yesterday.
Abdul Karim al-Mohammadawi is known as 'Prince of the Marshes' for leading resistance to Saddam in Iraq's southern marshlands even after the ousted dictator campaigned to crush Shi'ite rebels in the 1980s and 1990s.