Iraqi Shi'ite Leader Muqtada Al-Sadr: We Must Not Seek the Help of Infidels and Foreigners in Liberating Mosul

Iraqi Shi'ite political and militia leader Muqtada Al-Sadr, the head of the Sadrist Movement, said in an interview with Al-Sharqiya News TV that he did not intend protestors to physically assault MPs during his followers' storming of the Iraqi parliament. "I wanted them to grab [the MPs] peacefully and throw them into the garbage bin," he said. Al-Sadr said that Iran is a neighbor "just like Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Jordan," and Iraqi's partnership with it will continue as long as it does not intervene in Iraq "in a negative way." He pledged not to attack embassies in the future, except for "harassing" the US embassy as a payback for the Americans' flying a plane over his tent in March, during his sit-in at the Green Zone. He also said that he does not expect the Kurds to try and secede from Iraq and that Iraqis do not need foreign help in liberating Mosul. The interview aired on July 9.

Muqtada Sadr: I will oppose any conflict - whether Shi'ite-Shi'ite, Sunni-Shi'ite, Sunni-Sunni, Shi'ite-Jewish, or between any of the sects in Iraq. I reject any clashes. We do not attack anyone, but if we, as rebels and reformers, are attacked, then by all means. This enterprise requires blood, I won't deny it. But never will we initiate an attack on anybody. I will reject anyone attacking anybody.

Even during the storming of the parliament, when certain [MPs] were assaulted - I did not want the protestors to use this method. I wanted them to grab [the MPs] peacefully and throw them into the garbage bin, but I didn't want them to beat them up. My relation with Iran has always been somewhat volatile, because I am a bit of a troublemaker. They don't get what they want from me.

Interviewer: But at the end of the day, you do not deviate from the line they set...

Muqtada Sadr: No, no. They are neighbors, and we have a partnership with them, just like with Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Jordan, as long as they do not intervene in a negative way. If Iran, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, or any country intervenes in a negative way, I will absolutely reject this.

Interviewer: So you think that their intervention is a positive one?

Muqtada Sadr: Who?

Interviewer: The Iranians.

Muqtada Sadr: It's positive from their perspective...

Interviewer: No, you've just said that you oppose only negative intervention...

Muqtada Sadr: No, I say that with all the neighboring and non-occupying countries, we have relations of friendship and partnership, so long as they do not intervene in the situation in Iraq negatively, by sending terrorists, sending militiamen whose sectarian hatred is excessive. Three-quarters of the Popular Mobilization Units [PMU] are militiamen, aren't they? Yet they protect the Iraqi people. But there are others who infiltrated it in order to tarnish its reputation.

Interviewer: So the [anti-Iranian] slogans do not represent the position of the Sadarist movement?

Muqtada Sadr: Look, whenever the masses react, there are mistakes along with the good things.

Interviewer: So it was a mistake?

Muqtada Sadr: It was a mistake considering the instructions the protestors were given. We said to them: You must not attack any of the embassies in Iraq. I still pledge that if there are demonstrations in the future, they will not reach any embassy. But the American embassy harassed us a little in the Green Tent, so we will harass them a little in the future.

Interviewer: In what way did they harass you?

Muqtada Sadr: A US plane was flying over the tent. But Allah willing, we will harass them back in the future.

Interviewer: What will you do?

Muqtada Sadr: Let's leave it for the future.

Interviewer: Do you think that the PMU should participate in the liberation of Mosul?

Muqtada Sadr: This should be up to the Iraqi army. If the army feels it cannot do it alone and it needs our help and the help of the PMU, we are at its service. If the army can do it by itself, fine. Let me reiterate: Attaching people to the army, even temporarily, in order to liberate plundered regions, is a good thing. This way, it will be army against terrorists, not Shiites against Sunnis, which will only aggravate sectarian anger abroad.

Interviewer: Rights. What about the role of the American airforce? Do you think it is required?

Muqtada Sadr: No, but even if it is, we don't need it.

Interviewer: How come?

Muqtada Sadr: We must not seek the help of infidels and foreigners. We are capable of liberating our own lands.

[...]

Interviewer: There is a question mark regarding the post-ISIS period. If ISIS is gone...

Muqtada Sadr: A question mark? More like a hundred question marks.

Interviewer: I mean, how do you see the future of Iraq?

Muqtada Sadr: I hope that we won't move from one type of extremism to another.

Interviewer:

Muqtada Sadr: What do you understand from this?

Interviewer:You need to explain a little...

Muqtada Sadr: The fear is that we will emerge from the extremism of ISIS only to fall into the extremism of others, who will lord over us by different means, wearing different clothes. We may be able to stop ISIS, but these will be from our own people.

[...]

Interviewer: I'd like to ask you about the coexistence in Iraq between the Shiites, the Sunni Arabs, and the Kurds, when ISIS is gone. It looks as if the Kurds are preparing themselves, one way or another.

Muqtada Sadr: For secession? I don't think so.

Interviewer: There are calls...

Muqtada Sadr: They cannot rely on their own resources to break away from Iraq. If they could, they would, but they are still dependent on the "mother," on Baghdad. They will not secede...

Interviewer: There is growing talk...

Muqtada Sadr: Most of the Kurds act in a [pragmatic] political manner. If you give them what they want, they are pleased, and if you deny it from them, they are upset. The Sunnis and the Shiites are the concern, not the Kurds.

[...]