Top Cleric Brokers Deal To End Battle In Najaf
by Rajiv Chandrasekaran
from washingtonpost.com

BAGHDAD, Aug. 27 -- In an agreement brokered by the top Shiite Muslim religious figure in Iraq, rebellious cleric Moqtada Sadr agreed Thursday night to withdraw his militia from a contested shrine and other parts of the city of Najaf after three weeks of fighting against U.S. and Iraqi forces, government and religious leaders said. The deal commits the country's interim government to significant concessions.

In exchange for Sadr's compliance, the government pledged to pull U.S. military forces out of Najaf and to allow Sadr, who had been wanted by the former U.S. occupation authority on murder charges, to participate in politics.

"He is as free as any Iraqi citizen to do whatever he would like in Iraq," said Qasim Dawood, a minister of state, after announcing the government's acceptance of the peace plan arranged by Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani.

The accord was reached on a day when more than 45 people died in a mortar attack and other violence in Najaf and the neighboring town of Kufa, which are about 90 miles south of Baghdad.

Members of Sadr's Mahdi Army, a well-armed militia that numbers in the low thousands, will be allowed to leave Najaf and return to their homes without any sanction, despite having fought against U.S. and Iraqi security forces for three weeks. The agreement allows thousands of Shiite pilgrims to enter the closed-off city in the early hours of Friday morning to visit the shrine of Imam Ali, providing an opportunity for militiamen holed up there to melt into the throng and avoid detection as they depart.

At 6:30 a.m. Friday, authorities in Najaf permitted the pilgrims to enter the city and walk toward the shrine. The crowd, estimated at more than 10,000 people, was searched for weapons by Iraqi police officers at the edge of Najaf's Old City district, where the shrine is located. As they streamed toward the shrine, marchers chanted "God is great" and raised their hands in the air.

Sadr, who has reneged on peace deals in the past, did not issue a statement of acceptance, but senior government officials and a top aide to Sistani expressed optimism that Sadr would comply with the terms of this agreement, which was reached during a meeting between Sistani and Sadr. "Mr. Moqtada Sadr has agreed to the proposals from his eminence, Ayatollah Ali Sistani," said Sistani's top aide, Hamed Khafaf.

At 8 a.m. Friday, a message conveyed from Sadr was broadcast from the shrine's loudspeakers instructing militiamen to depart with the crowd. "Drop your weapons and leave Najaf and Kufa," the announcement said. "You have done a great job."

If Sadr's militiamen leave the shrine -- and the Reuters news agency reported some were turning in their weapons and changing into civilian clothes -- it would end a conflict that has claimed hundreds of lives and roiled Iraq's Shiite majority, who have been concerned that using force to resolve the standoff could damage the gold-domed edifice. "Iraq has achieved a victory today," Dawood said at a Thursday night news conference. "No more fights. Najaf and Kufa will be peaceful cities, free from arms, free from militias."

The U.S. military, which ceased offensive operations on Thursday because of the peace talks, did not withdraw from positions inside Najaf after the deal was announced. Dawood said U.S. forces would be instructed to "draw back" by the interim prime minister, Ayad Allawi, once Sadr's militia departs.

The arrangement was a vivid indication of the enormous clout Sistani wields among Iraq's Shiites. His objections to American plans for Iraq's political transition forced the U.S. occupation authority to make substantial changes on two occasions. But in recent months, some political and religious leaders wondered whether Sistani, a reclusive 73-year-old who believes in the separation of religion and government, was losing followers to Sadr, a mercurial man in his early thirties who lacks Sistani's clerical credentials but plays a more activist form of street politics.

Last week, Sistani's aides demanded that Sadr hand over the keys to the shrine, but Sadr's aides refused, insisting that a transfer had to be done on their terms. The exchange seemed to suggest that Sistani lacked the power to rein in Sadr.

But Thursday's compromise indicated Sistani was still the most influential cleric in Iraq, a man who can force both Sadr and the interim government to yield to his middle-ground approach. When Sistani arrived in the southern port city of Basra on Wednesday after a trip to Britain for treatment of a heart condition, Dawood and another cabinet minister flew to meet him and discuss his peace plan. Shortly after Sistani's police-escorted convoy reached Najaf Thursday afternoon, Sadr came calling.

"Sayyid Ali Sistani has played a very important role in bringing about peace," said Dawood, using the honorific reserved for descendants of the prophet Muhammad.