Sadr calls for “renewing” UIA, welcomes alliances

NAJAF / IraqiNews.com: Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr on Friday called for “renewing” the Shiite United Iraqi Alliance (UIA), of which he was part prior to withdrawal, welcoming the formation of fresh political alliances. “We support the idea of renewing the former coalition into what should be called the United National Iraqi Alliance,” said Sadr in a statement published by his office in the holy Shiite city of Najaf as received by IraqiNews.com news agency. Sadr was referring to the UIA bloc, which entered the Iraqi parliament in 2005. It was composed of the Dawa Party of incumbent Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council (SIIC) of Shiite leader Abdelaziz al-Hakim and the Sadrists before they quit over their insistence to “have a timetable for the withdrawal of occupying troops in Iraq”. Sadr called for “overhauling policies and laying down new controls that are neither sectarian nor ethnic”. He also called for changing the rules to have efficiency as the criteria and having all political powers participating in the country’s political process. “The UIA’s policies have failed due to its mismanagement, autocratic decisions, sectarian inclinations and coming short of addressing the suffering of the people, which all led Iraq to a political and security abyss,” the Shiite leader added. The statement urged “new alliances inside the provincial councils provided that all sectarian powers, which only caused conflicts, famine and lack of funds, are brushed aside”. He also appealed to the Iraqi judiciary and government to “immediately release brother Muntadhar al-Zaidi,” adding “Zaidi has just shown a version of national resistance and only expressed the feelings of the Iraqis who are suffering from the presence of occupation on their lands and its control over their wealth”. Zaidi had been arrested after throwing his shoes at the then U.S. President George W. Bush during a press conference in Baghdad on December 14, 2008. AmR (S) 1