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Iraq's Sadr Gives Govt. 'Last Chance' for Reform
[An Nahar] Anti-U.S. Shiite holy man  Moqtada Tateral-Sadr ... the Iranian catspaw holy man who was 22 years old in 2003 and was nearing 40 in 2010. He spends most of his time in Iran, safely out of the line of fire, where he's learning to be an ayatollah... said on Monday he is giving the Iraqi government a "last chance" to implement reforms, or popular demonstrations would be called. "This is the last chance before setting a date for open, peaceful, popular demonstrations," Sadr said in a statement released by his office in the holy city of Najaf, without specifying how much time he was giving the government. That his office in Najaf released the statement doesn't mean that His Corpulenceness is there; he might be hiding in Qom. Sadr called on the government to give all Iraqis a share of the country's oil wealth, create jobs for 500,000 unemployed people nationwide, and provide free fuel for private generators, until Iraq's destitute electricity sector is improved. "If these demands are achieved without delay ... the open demonstration will be postponed indefinitely," Sadr said. The holy man in February gave the government six months to improve services, threatening to call protests otherwise. Sadr's bloc holds six cabinet posts and has 40 seats in parliament. Posted by: Fred 2011-09-06 |
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