Report: Sadr in interview says Maliki government near end; Calls him 'a tool for the Americans'

Above: Prime Minister Maliki and al-Sadr at a press conference last year. The interview for this report was said to have taken place in Kufa, though the U.S. has claimed that Sadr left for Iran weeks ago. Below: The major players -- Nuri al-Maliki (Prime Minister, Shiite), Tariq al-Hashemi (one of two Vice Presidents, Sunni), Moqtada al-Sadr ('fiery' anti-American cleric, Shiite), Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim (head of the largest Shiite coalition), Jalal Talabani (President of Iraq, Kurd, Qadiri Sufi sect of Sunnism), and Massoud Barzani (President of Iraqi Kurdistan, Naqshbandi Sufi sect of Sunnisim). The largest Sunni bloc recently returned to parliament after Mahmud Mashhadani was reinstated as speaker, but has withdrawn its cabinet ministers from Maliki's cabinet. Sadr's parliamentary bloc also returned recently to the legislature following a protest of the most recent bombing of the al-Askari shrine in Samarra, but also withdrew from the cabinet in April. Maliki recently announced a new coalition involving al-Hakim and Talabani, but noticeably lacking Sunnis. Not pictured is former Interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, whose smaller Sunni bloc is boycotting cabinet meetings.

A top Iraqi Shiite militia leader predicted Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government was nearing its end because it has been tainted by its close work with American forces, a British newspaper reported Monday.

Cleric Muqtada al-Sadr told The Independent newspaper that al-Maliki's government was on the brink of collapse, despite efforts to bolster its base of support.

"Al-Maliki's government will not survive because he has proven that he will not work with important elements of the Iraqi people," the cleric was quoted by the newspaper as saying.

"The prime minister is a tool for the Americans, and people see that clearly. It will probably be the Americans who decide to change him when they realize he has failed. We don't have a democracy here, we have a foreign occupation."

Al-Sadr had been among al-Maliki's strongest supporters.

Read the rest at the International Herald Tribune

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