Iraq votes in Islamic based government with ties to Iran

As predicted by me in December 2002! I hate to say "I told you so", but- I told you so. Thank you, thank you, thank you! Enjoy the crow all you Republicans. No StarBucks and McValue meals just yet for Iraq. No need to look out for the mini-mall complex on the corner of St 47, Mahallat 102 in Baghdad featuring a BlockBuster video, Noah's Bagels and a Baja Fresh.

Robin Wright of the Washington Post points out that an electoral victory of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq and the Dawa Party, both of them close to Tehran, is not what Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and the Neoconservatives had been going for with this Iraq adventure. The United Iraqi Alliance is led by Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, a Shiite cleric who lived over 2 decades in exile in Iran. I point out that the likely coalition partner of the United Iraqi Alliance is the Kurdistan Alliance, led by Jalal Talabani, who is himself very close to Tehran. So there are likely to be warm Baghdad-Tehran relations.

Likewise, it is worth pointing out that the new Shiite government in Baghdad will support the Lebanese Shiites, including Hezbollah.

The United Iraqi Alliance is backed by the Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, the most powerful Shiite figure in Iraq. Sistani carries an Iranian passport and has never spoken directly to the coalition government or any U.S. representative. The ayatollah also has insisted that Iraq's new constitution must be in line with Islamic principles, and recognize Islam as the nation's religion. Iraq's women are encouraged to vote as they want but, under Sistani's teachings, they won't be able to shake the hand of any man other than a father, brother or husband. Sistani also forbids music for entertainment, dancing and playing chess.

Yes, he's powerful," says one U.S. official. "But he won't meet face to face." No American official has ever been able to see Sistani, whose aides say he thinks such a meeting would justify the U.S. occupation.


One of the Neoconservatives' goals had been the installation of a pro-Israel government in Baghdad. But at Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution rallies and Friday prayers services, crowds have been known to chant "Death to Israel!"

Washington Post Feb 13th 2005

MSNBC reports on Sistani

The New York Times

Wednesday 16 February

BAGHDAD, Iraq - The race for the top job in Iraq's new government narrowed Tuesday to two leaders in the Shiite alliance, with Ibrahim Jafari of the Dawa Party squaring off against Ahmad Chalabi, who was mounting a last-minute stand against his rival.

(Yes, the same disgraced Ahmad Chalabi who was the darling of the neocons until it was reported that he was passing secrets to the Iranians)

Dr. Jafari, a physician who spent more than 20 years in exile and is now a deputy president in the interim government, improved his chances on Tuesday when he persuaded another rival, Adil Abdul Mahdi, to withdraw from the race.

Dr. Jafari's party, Dawa, and Mr. Mahdi's, the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, known as Sciri, are the two largest groups in the Shiite alliance, which captured a slim majority of the votes in the election on Jan. 30.