Diplomacy will be 'state to state with full sovereignty'

by Jason Ditz 

Posted onOctober 17, 2021CategoriesNewsTagsIraq

Influential Iraqi cleric Moqtada al-Safr is in a good place, with the election giving his party a strong plurality. With high hopes for governance, Sadr is setting out the conditions by which the next government should deal with the United States.

Sadr was fairly straightforward, saying diplomacy needs to be “state-to-state with full sovereignty” with comments on Twitter. He’s long made the idea of an Iraqi state standing up for its sovereignty a major goal.

The US is emphasized because that’s the most safely popular position within Iraq, though Sadr has long advocated independence on the international stage, which will include not just the US, but influential regional powers like Iran as well.

This ultimately depends on the Sadrist Movement forming a government, of courses, and even with the biggest plurality, that’s no certainty. Iraq’s political landscape is a disorganized mess, and cobbling together a majority will likely take a long time.

https://news.antiwar.com/2021/10/17/iraqs-sadr-lays-out-conditions-for-dealing-with-us/