BAGHDAD
A Muslim cleric who once used a militia to resist the American invasion positioned himself as a big winner in Iraq’s monthslong political deadlock yesterday when his party threw its support behind the beleaguered prime minister.
The hard-line Shiite group led by Muqtada al-Sadr called it the start of its ascent to nationwide power.
Washington considers the cleric a threat to Iraq’s shaky security and has long refused to consider his movement a legitimate political entity. But Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki may be unable to govern without him.
March elections failed to produce a clear winner and left the nation in turmoil — a power vacuum that U.S. military officials say has encouraged a spike in attacks by Sunni insurgents.
Final agreement on how to form the new government could still be weeks if not months away, but “the Sadrist acceptance of al-Maliki as prime minister could begin to break the logjam,” said Iraq expert Daniel Serwer of the U.S. Institute of Peace in Washington.
It is still too soon for al-Maliki to declare victory, however, because his chief rival, former prime minister Ayad Allawi, continues to scramble for support.
Allying with al-Maliki poses a political risk for al-Sadr among his followers, many of whom hate the prime minister. But it is clear to Iraqi and U.S. officials that al-Sadr wants unfettered and increased influence in the next government if al-Maliki comes out on top.
The cleric, whose militia once ran death squads out of the health ministry headquarters in Baghdad to target Sunnis, has been in self-imposed exile in Iran since 2007.
Having a Sadrist in power would endanger if not scuttle hopes of establishing a thriving democracy in Iraq that could be a model in the region. There are worries about how much influence Iran carries over al-Sadr after offering him refuge for more than three years.
The Obama administration says it doesn’t have a favorite candidate among those competing to become prime minister, but it strongly opposes giving power to al-Sadr and his followers.
Sadrists, however, were the only party to gain seats in parliament in the March 7 vote, winning 39 of the 325. That has put them in the position of being wooed by other Shiite political leaders for support.
“The Sadrists having a key role in the next government of Iraq was one of the few redlines that the Obama administration had,” said Ken Pollack, an expert at the Brookings Institute in Washington who was a key Iraq policy-maker in the Clinton administration.
“They’ve staged this major comeback, and the administration is very, very worried about that,” Pollack said.
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