NAJAF, Iraq, Feb 17, 2008 (AFP) - Radical Iraqi cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's movement Sunday announced it was cancelling a pact it signed four months ago with its main Shiite rival aimed at reducing tension between the two groups.
The agreement between the Sadrists and the Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council (SIIC) of Abdel Aziz al-Hakim "has failed and is cancelled," Nassar al-Rubaie, spokesman for the Sadr bloc in parliament, told AFP.
The two groups, which have clashed repeatedly in the past as each sought control of Iraq's majority Shiite community, signed a pact last October 6 aimed at ending the violence between their two militias.
Their attempt at reconciliation was prompted by tensions in the town of Diwaniyah, 180 kilometres (110 miles) south of Baghdad, between the local authorities controlled by the SIIC and Sadr's Mahdi Army militia.
Dozens of Sadrists had been rounded up in operations led by the Iraqi security forces supported by US troops following confrontations between the rival militiamen during the second half of 2007.
Part of the deal was that joint committees be set up with provincial branches to keep order between rival supporters, but according to Rubaie this has not been done.
"Committees should have been created to resolve security problems in all the provinces," he said. "But they have not been implemented and this agreement is just a facade. It has not been activated."
Competition between the two Shiite factions has often been violent, with a number of officials on either side assassinated.
At stake is control of local government in Iraq's mainly Shiite southern provinces which are rich in oil, and in particular in the large town of Basra, the main port for exporting hydrocarbons.
Rivalry between the two movements is likely to increase ahead of provincial elections scheduled for October 1.
The SIIC has close links with Iran, and its chief Abdel Aziz al-Hakim often visits Tehran.
He is also welcomed in Washington, where he is regarded as a key player on the Iraqi political scene.
The Sadrist movement touts itself as a defender of the Arab identity of Iraq's Shiite community, and its young chief was long regarded as a bete noir of US troops in Iraq.
However, he declared a six-month ceasefire last August and has since been frequently praised by US commanders for having helped to reduce the levels of violence across Iraq.
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“ Every war, when viewed from the undistorted perspective of life's sanctity, is a "civil war" waged by humanity against itself."
- Daisaku Ikeda
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