Tehran denies Sadr in Iran

Iran's Foreign Ministry denied Sunday that radical Iraqi Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr was in Iran, calling statements by U.S. and Iraqi officials saying he had traveled to Iran "psychological warfare."

"No, he is not in Iran," Mohammad Ali Hoseini, spokesman for the Ministry, told journalists during a regular press briefing in Iran's first comment on the issue. "The report is baseless and a kind of psychological warfare against Iran by the U.S. to put more pressure on Iran."

An adviser to Iraq's prime minister said last Thursday that al-Sadr, a close ally of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, was in Iran, but denied that the cleric had fled there due to fear of arrest during a security crackdown by coalition forces. A member of al-Sadr's bloc in parliament said the cleric had left Iraq three weeks earlier.

Read the rest at the Guardian

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