URGENT: U.S. Ambassador to Baghdad criticizes Sadist March, says ready for dialogue with Sadrists

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: The U.S. Ambassador to Baghdad, James Jeffery, has criticized the march, launched by the (Shiite) Sadrist Trend’s al-Mahdi Army militia in Baghdad last Thursday, warning against what he termed as “granting right” for political forces to form militias, though expressing his readiness for dialogue with the Sadrists, despite anxiety towards the speeches delivered during the march, which he considered as an attack against his country.   “The speeches, delivered during the Sadrist Trend’s march had included talk about their right to attack us, despite fact that our presence is legitimate and had taken place according to the (Iraqi) Parliament’s will,” Ambassador Jeffery told Iraqi media sources, including IraqiNews.com news agency.   “Iraqis must ask themselves about the escalation of violence in the event of our departure from the country ( Iraq ),” the U.S. Ambassador said.   Noteworthy is that thousands of the so-called al-Mahdi Army elements had demonstrated in east Baghdad’s al-Sadr city’s al-Fallah Street last Thursday, under direct auspices of the Trend’s Leader, Muqtada al-Sadr, among complete absence of armed men, and the demonstrators, dressed in black costumes, wrapped by the Iraqi flag, were also led by Shiite clergymen, while the demonstrators stepped by foot on the American and the Israeli flags, as well as burning American flags.   Sadrist Leader, Sheikh Hazim al-Aaraji, delivered a speech during the demonstration, saying that “al-Mahdi Army elements, in the event of non-withdrawal of the American forces from Iraq , would ‘divorce’ their wives, leaving their children to their Creator (Allah) and change into time-bombs in the hands of al-Sadr and the (Shiite religious) Hawza (authority).   The U.S. Ambassador, on his part, said that “the right of peaceful demonstration and expression of opinion were guaranteed by all democracies in general and Iraq in special, because they are rights, guaranteed by the constitution.”   But he pointed out to the existence of “two worrying points, raised in the speeches, that were delivered during the said march, the first related to the “granting of right for political forces to form militias and implement any measure they want,” considering this issue as “a huge poison that destroys any democracy, as we saw it to have destroyed three of the largest states in the 30s of the last century, after 10 years of their formation, Germany, Japan and Italy, in a form nobody could imagine.”   The U.S. Ambassador pointed out that “the worst thing about the right to use violence, is the one of the political blocs deciding to adopt a decision that it does not like, despite its parliamentary legitimacy.”   “The question we have to ask ourselves today is related to the direction, taken by the violence and anger against the American forces, after our departure from Iraq,” the Ambassador said, considering that “Iraqis, who faced death during their last elections and everybody who supports the Parliamentary system, must deeply think of what had happened last week,” in a hint to the Sadrist Trend’s march.   As regards to the opening of dialogue between Muqtada al-Sadr and the United States, Ambassador Jefferey said that he had held meetings with some members of al-Sadr Trend in 2005 and the current year, in some Iraqi provinces, saying: “but, it seems that there exists a firm decision not to carry out any meetings with us.”   “We are prepared for dialogue with anybody, so long that he is not involved or accused with carrying out crimes,” the Ambassador stressed, saying: “but the Sadrists are addressing us through guns and rockets, which they have to stop.”   SKH (FT)