No dialogue with parties involved in occupying Iraq – Sadrist Trend

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: Sadrist spokesman announced today that “the Sadrist Trend is firm on its stand to not engage in any dialogue with any party involved in occupying Iraq.”  This is the first comment from the Sadrists on the U.S. ambassador’s statement about his readiness to have a dialogue with the Sadrist Trend, despite his criticism of the recent parade organized by the Mehdi Army.  Spokesman Sheikh Salah Al-Obaidi told IraqiNews.com “we did not, and will not, have any dialogue with the parties involved in occupying Iraq,” criticizing the media for not being accurate in its wires.  U.S. ambassador to Baghdad James Jeffery spoke on Monday with the media, including IraqiNews.com, stating that he met some members of the Sadrist Trend in 2005 and this year in the provinces, “but it seems that there is a rigid rule to not have any contact with us,” he added.  “We are ready to have a dialogue with anybody who is not accused or convicted of any crimes, but the Sadrists talk with us through guns and rockets, and they have to stop that,” he added.  On the Sadrist parade held at the end of last week, Obaidi confirmed its “peaceful and civil” character, which “is not a defiance to the Iraqi government or any other Iraqi political or social party.”  The US ambassador criticized the parade and warned from “granting the right for militias,” expressing his concern with the speeches made in the parade and regarded them as “an attack against his country.” Thousands of Mehdi Army members paraded last Thursday (26 May, 2011) in Sadr City, in the absence of any military presence, stepping on and burning U.S. and Israeli flags during the march. “The speeches made during the parade spoke of their rights to attack us, though we have a legitimate presence according to the will of the Iraqi Parliament,” the U.S. ambassador added. RM (TI)/SR 1199