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Iranians help reach Iraq cease-fire
By Charles Levinson, USA TODAY
BAGHDAD Iranian officials helped broker a cease-fire agreement Sunday between
Iraq's government and radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, according to Iraqi
lawmakers.
The deal could help defuse a wave of violence that had threatened recent
security progress in Iraq. It also may signal the growing regional influence of
Iran, a country the Bush administration accuses of providing support to
terrorists in Iraq and elsewhere.
Al-Sadr ordered his forces off the streets of Iraq on Sunday. Iraqi Prime
Minister Nouri al-Maliki hailed al-Sadr's action as "a step in the right
direction." It was unclear whether the deal would completely end six days of
clashes between U.S.-backed Iraqi forces and Shiite militias, including
al-Sadr's.
Osama al-Nujaifi, a Sunni lawmaker who oversaw mediation in Baghdad, said
representatives from al-Maliki's Dawa Party and another Shiite party traveled to
Iran to finalize talks with al-Sadr.
Iran has close ties with both al-Sadr's movement and al-Maliki, who spent
several years in exile there. Al-Nujaifi said the agreement was brokered by the
commander of Iran's al-Quds Brigade, which is considered a terrorist
organization by Washington.
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