Sadr’s return to cement national ties – Iraqiya

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: The return of Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr to Iraq would act as a motive to strengthen the country’s national ties in a stage of partnership, a spokesman for al-Iraqiya bloc said on Thursday. “Iraq is experiencing a new stage, one of national partnership government. That brings together all sons of the Iraqi nation. Sadr’s return would entrench national ties and enhance mutual confidence for cooperation and joint action,” Shakir Kattab told IraqiNews.com news agency. He noted that Sadr will be shouldering great responsibilities as to merge the Sadrist Movement, a bloc that occupies 40 seats in the Iraqi parliament, into the national political process. The al-Shaheed al-Sadr Office had said that the Shiite leader arrived at his house in the holy Shiite city of Najaf on Wednesday (Jan. 6) after more than three and half years in Iran. Sadr was last seen in Iraq during a Friday sermon in early June 2007. Regarding the Iranian foreign minister’s visit to Iraq, Kattab pointed out that it should be viewed as a positive one with the aim of bringing bilateral relations between Iraq and Iran back to normal. “This visit should represent a key pillar for Iran’s interference in Iraq’s internal affairs and mark a stage to stress respect for the country’s sovereignty,” he said. Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi had arrived in Baghdad on Wednesday for a visit, his first ever as a foreign minister of Iran in succession of Manouchehr Mottaki. Kattab expressed his bloc’s wish that Salehi’s visit would help buttress economic and trade exchange now that the Iranian side had announced that it would “open a new chapter of relations with Iraq”. AmR (S) 10