Reply #6: Shias say Bush is interfering with the Iraqi govt. selection process [View All]

Shi'as grow unhappy over U.S. 'meddling'

Friday, March 31, 2006
BY QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA
Associated Press
http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/index.ssf?/base/news-5/1143790830238470.xml&coll=1

BAGHDAD -- A letter from President Bush to Iraq's supreme Shi'a spiritual leader, Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, was hand-delivered earlier this week but sits unread and untranslated in the top religious figure's office, a key Sistani aide told the Associated Press yesterday.

The aide -- who has never allowed use of his name in news reports, citing Sistani's refusal to make any public statements himself -- said the ayatollah had laid the letter aside and did not ask for a translation because of increasing "unhappiness" over what senior Shi'a leaders see as American meddling in Iraqi attempts to form their first, permanent post-invasion government.

The messenger also was said to have explained that the letter reinforced the American position that Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari should not be given a second term. Sistani has not publicly taken sides in the dispute but rather has called for Shi'a unity.

The Sistani aide said Shi'a displeasure with U.S. involvement was so deep that dignitaries in the holy city of Najaf refused to meet Khalilzad on Wednesday during ceremonies commemorating the death of the prophet Muhammad.

The United States is believed to oppose Jaafari because of his close ties and strong backing from radical Shi'a cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who has a thousands-strong heavily armed militia that was responsible for much of the violence that hit the country after the Feb. 22 bombing of an important Shi'a shrine in Samarra, north of Baghdad.

full report: http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/index.ssf?/base/news-5/1143790830238470.xml&coll=1