Shi'ite coalition meets with Sistani

Nouri al-Maliki, Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, Moqtada al-Sadr,
Harith al-Dhari and Massoud Barzani

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Delegates representing Shiite groups forming the largest bloc in Iraq's parliament gathered Thursday at the home of the country's top Shiite cleric to seek his blessing for a new coalition that would promote national reconciliation.

Many of the delegates traveled late Wednesday to the holy city of Najaf, where they were meeting Thursday morning with Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, an official in the cleric's office said. The others were traveling to Najaf on Thursday.

The delegates were also expected to meet with radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr about joining the political process and reining in his fighters, Shiite officials said. Al-Sadr heads a militia feared by Iraq's Sunnis, and his supporters pulled out of the political process three weeks ago.

Joint army-police checkpoints were erected at all entrances to Najaf on Thursday morning, a top police official and a representative from al-Sistani's office said.

Until the walkout, al-Sadr's faction had been an integral part of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's governing coalition. Cabinet ministers and legislators who belong to al-Sadr's movement called the boycott after al-Maliki met with President Bush in Jordan three weeks ago. Al-Sadr's militia and its offshoots have been increasingly blamed for sectarian attacks.

Read the rest at the Washington Post

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