- BAGHDAD (Reuters) -- Iraq's
interim president urged firebrand Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr on Tuesday
to lay down his arms and enter politics, a prospect which President Bush
said he would not oppose.
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- Interim President Ghazi Yawar said he welcomed the recent
decision by Sadr -- whom Bush only last month had branded an anti-democratic
thug -- to create a political party that could take part in elections early
next year.
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- "I kept on saying consistently that if I were in
his shoes I would try to go to the political arena instead of raising arms,"
Yawar told reporters outside the Iraqi government building.
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- "He has supporters, he has constituents, he should
go through the political process and I commend this smart move on his side,"
added Yawar, recently returned from the Group of Eight summit of major
industrial powers in the United States.
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- Asked in Washington whether Sadr could be welcomed into
the political fold, Bush told reporters that the decision lay with Iraq's
new government.
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- "The interim Iraqi government will deal with al-Sadr
in the way they see fit. They're sovereign. When we say we transfer full
sovereignty, we mean we transfer full sovereignty."
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- Sadr launched an uprising against U.S.-led occupying
troops two months ago. Earlier this month he agreed a truce in Najaf and
Kerbala under pressure from Shi'ite religious leaders appalled by fighting
near holy shrines.
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- SADDAM PROTECTION
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- In Baghdad, the U.S.-led administration in Iraq insisted
Sadr should still surrender to an Iraqi arrest warrant in connection with
the murder of a rival cleric in Najaf last year.
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- "There's an Iraqi arrest warrant issued against
Moqtada al-Sadr that ties him to a brutal murder," Dan Senor, spokesman
for the administration, told a news conference in Baghdad.
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- U.S. troops arrested a senior aide and spokesman to Sadr
in an overnight raid in the holy city of Kerbala, his office said.
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- But Yawar said the young cleric was innocent until proven
guilty and could enter Iraqi politics as soon as he disbands his Mehdi
Army militia, thought to number several thousand.
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- "In the new Iraq nobody is above the law. However,
he is not convicted, his name has been brought as a suspect in a certain
incident. So he has to make sure he clears himself," Yawar said.
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- Iraq announced a deal this month in which nine militias,
but not the Mehdi Army, agreed to disband. The deal bans militia members
from politics for three years after leaving a militia.
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- "Most of the new leadership in Iraq were ex-militia
leaders but they are disbanding their militias, they are becoming Iraqi
leaders and he can do the same," he said. "It is never too late
for anybody in Iraq."
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- Yawar also said that toppled Iraqi president Saddam Hussein
would be handed over to the new government once procedures were in place
to protect his life and give him a fair trial.
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- "The United States is very keen to hand over the
ex-president to the Iraqi authorities. We must first make sure that we
can maintain protection for his life until he goes to trial," Yawar
said.
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- Senor said the United States was keen to hand Saddam
over to Iraqi authorities when a sovereign Iraqi government was in place
after a planned handover of powers on June 30.
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- "Our goal is to get him into Iraqi hands as soon
as possible, we expect some time after June 30 to be able to do that,"
he said. Saddam has been held at an unknown location since his capture
by U.S. troops last December.
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- http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=5428705
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