ABCNEWS.com : Iraqi Shiites Fast Filling Power Vacuum
Winning Shiite support is key to U.S. efforts to block the influence of Iran and there are signs this may be possible. Senior Shiite clerics have insisted they want to share power with Iraq's Sunnis and Kurds.
Iraqi Shiites are Arab, not Persian like their Iranian counterparts, and have a strong sense of Iraqi nationalism. During the Iran-Iraq war from 1980-88, they did not rise up against Saddam. Many Shiites oppose the idea of an Islamic state run by clerics, including Iraq's top cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali Hussein al-Sistani.
Iraq's largest Shiite group, the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq, has its headquarters in Tehran, the Iranian capital.
The group's leader, Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim, is still in Iran. But his brother, Abdel Aziz al-Hakim, who commands the group's armed wing, has come back to Iraq to pave the way for the ayatollah's return.
He told al-Jazeera television on Wednesday that the group opposes any foreign presence in Iraq. Its fighters the Badr Brigades are present around Iraq but have been ordered not to confront U.S. forces, Abdel Aziz al-Hakim told al-Jazeera television.
"We do not want any fighting ... as this would only harm the interests of the Iraqi people," he said.
Iranian political analyst Saeed Leylaz doubted Iran could have much say about its neighbor.
"Iran doesn't have the strategic ability to greatly influence the situation in Iraq or sway it in its own favor due to its own economic problems and lack of international or regional support for an Iranian project," he said.
Jay Garner, the retired U.S. general overseeing postwar reconstruction, told reporters in northern Iraq Wednesday that the Shiite demonstrations in Karbala and elsewhere are "the first part of democracy the right to disagree."
"I think the bulk of the Shia, the majority of the Shia, are very glad they are where they are right now. Two weeks ago they wouldn't have been able to demonstrate," he said.
Winning Shiite support is key to U.S. efforts to block the influence of Iran and there are signs this may be possible. Senior Shiite clerics have insisted they want to share power with Iraq's Sunnis and Kurds.
Iraqi Shiites are Arab, not Persian like their Iranian counterparts, and have a strong sense of Iraqi nationalism. During the Iran-Iraq war from 1980-88, they did not rise up against Saddam. Many Shiites oppose the idea of an Islamic state run by clerics, including Iraq's top cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali Hussein al-Sistani.
Iraq's largest Shiite group, the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq, has its headquarters in Tehran, the Iranian capital.
The group's leader, Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim, is still in Iran. But his brother, Abdel Aziz al-Hakim, who commands the group's armed wing, has come back to Iraq to pave the way for the ayatollah's return.
He told al-Jazeera television on Wednesday that the group opposes any foreign presence in Iraq. Its fighters the Badr Brigades are present around Iraq but have been ordered not to confront U.S. forces, Abdel Aziz al-Hakim told al-Jazeera television.
"We do not want any fighting ... as this would only harm the interests of the Iraqi people," he said.
Iranian political analyst Saeed Leylaz doubted Iran could have much say about its neighbor.
"Iran doesn't have the strategic ability to greatly influence the situation in Iraq or sway it in its own favor due to its own economic problems and lack of international or regional support for an Iranian project," he said.
Jay Garner, the retired U.S. general overseeing postwar reconstruction, told reporters in northern Iraq Wednesday that the Shiite demonstrations in Karbala and elsewhere are "the first part of democracy the right to disagree."
"I think the bulk of the Shia, the majority of the Shia, are very glad they are where they are right now. Two weeks ago they wouldn't have been able to demonstrate," he said.
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