Sadr movement spokesman rejects U.S.-staffed security station in Sadr City

U.S. soldiers on patrol in Sadr City yesterday

Baghdad, March 18, (VOI) - The Sadr movement is determined to reject the establishment of a U.S. security center in Shiite Sadr city, eastern Baghdad, a parliamentarian said on Sunday.

"The Sadrist parliamentary bloc, legislators loyal to the Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, holds the view that the presence of any U.S. bases in the province will affect its stability in the long run," legislator Falah Shanshal of the Shiite Sadr bloc told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI).

He added, "we would never oppose setting up an Iraqi security center but we reject any U.S. presence in Sadr city."

On Friday, following a sermon in the Shiite Sadr slum, demonstrations organized to protest the proposed U.S. security center in the city.

Shanshal said, "we believe that the U.S. presence (in Iraq) under UN resolution 1546 and the articles of the Iraqi constitution is no longer justifiable, as both documents provide for the pulling out of foreign forces from Iraq as soon as an elected Iraqi government comes into the fore, and this has virtually taken place."

"We will make every effort to establish a state of law for the better future of Iraq by demanding an Iraqi government with complete sovereignty," Shanshal added.

The Sadr parliamentary bloc has 30 seats out of the 275-member
parliament, alongside six portfolios within Nouri al-Maliki's cabinet.

From VOI

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