Leading Shiite politician (Ammar Hakim) calls for total US withdrawal from Iraq

Leading Shiite politician calls for total US withdrawal from Iraq

Sat Oct 13, 11:01 AM ET

BAGHDAD (AFP) - A key Shiite member of Iraq's ruling coalition called Saturday for the complete withdrawal of foreign troops from his country and rejected the

Ammar Hakim, a leading figure of the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council (SIIC), told a gathering celebrating the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr: "We will work not to have fixed bases for foreign troops on Iraqi lands."

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"We are working to enter into a security agreement with the international community to ensure that Iraq retrieves its full sovereignty," he said.

Hakim is the son of SIIC leader Abdel Aziz al-Hakim and has played an increasingly prominent role in recent months as his father recovers from cancer.

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You have to wonder whether the recent Iran-brokered pact between al-Hakim and Muqtada al-Sadr, plus the new ISCI / Sistani consensus on reining in the US military and ultimately pushing it out altogether are a sign of new Iranian and Iraqi Shiite strategizing about the future. It also seems to me that the constant US drumbeat against Iran may have alarmed the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, which is an Iranian client and which needs Iranian money and support to maintain its political position in Iraq. Iran is therefore working to position ISCI as anti-Occupation over the medium to long run, and as responsible and orderly (thus the pact with Sadr.)