FOXNews.com - Top Stories - U.S. to Iraqi Loyalists: Lay Down Arms or Else: "The U.S.-plan for transferring power to a sovereign Iraqi government through an appointed legislature was in trouble because of vehement opposition from Iraq's foremost Shiite cleric and his followers.
An aide to Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani told Abu Dhabi television on Thursday that al-Sistani might issue a religious edict, or fatwa, declaring the U.S. plan illegitimate if his demand for direct elections are ignored.
The warning came as an estimated 30,000 Shiite Muslims rallied in Basra, Iraq's second-largest city, in support of al-Sistani.
The turnout in Basra, 340 miles southeast of Baghdad, was the biggest protest yet against the power transfer plan, which calls for a provisional legislature to be selected by 18 regional caucuses. The legislature would then choose a new, sovereign administration to take office by July 1.
Faced with al-Sistani's objections, U.S. administrator L. Paul Bremer left Baghdad for Washington on Thursday for consultations with President Bush and his senior national security advisers.
'If Bremer rejects the opinion of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, then he will issue a fatwa to deprive the elected council of its legitimacy,' Mohammed Baqir al-Mehri, al-Sistani's representative in Kuwait, told Abu Dhabi television."
An aide to Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani told Abu Dhabi television on Thursday that al-Sistani might issue a religious edict, or fatwa, declaring the U.S. plan illegitimate if his demand for direct elections are ignored.
The warning came as an estimated 30,000 Shiite Muslims rallied in Basra, Iraq's second-largest city, in support of al-Sistani.
The turnout in Basra, 340 miles southeast of Baghdad, was the biggest protest yet against the power transfer plan, which calls for a provisional legislature to be selected by 18 regional caucuses. The legislature would then choose a new, sovereign administration to take office by July 1.
Faced with al-Sistani's objections, U.S. administrator L. Paul Bremer left Baghdad for Washington on Thursday for consultations with President Bush and his senior national security advisers.
'If Bremer rejects the opinion of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, then he will issue a fatwa to deprive the elected council of its legitimacy,' Mohammed Baqir al-Mehri, al-Sistani's representative in Kuwait, told Abu Dhabi television."
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