One of Iraq's most prominent Shiite clerics, Ayatollah Mohammad Baqer al-Hakim, is set to return home after more than two decades of exile in Iran — an event set to be closely watched by US officials fearing any steps towards an Iranian-style Islamic regime. In seeking to boost the political clout of his Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SAIRI), Hakim is nevertheless expected to play a delicate balancing act between pushing his revolutionary ideology and not drawing the wrath of the coalition forces running his country.
| Doesn't want to find his ass back in Teheran, and the rest of him with it... |
When the US-led invasion of Iraq bagan, Hakim declared the war to be "against the interests of the Iraqi people" and called on the Iraqi people to stay neutral as coalition forces fought it out with Saddam Hussein's armies. He even threatened armed resistance against the coalition, if they evolved into a force of occupation and stuck around too long.
| Then he saw what happened to Sammy's army... |
And while being keen to avoid being compared — favourably or unfavourably — to Iran's late revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Hakim did call in a recent statement for "the rules of Sharia (Islamic laws) to be put in place and integrated into the social and political life of a future Iraq."
| Yeah. That's zackly what Iraq needs... |
But also keen to describe himself as a "simple soldier", analysts believe the 64-year-old ayatollah will not be seeking centre stage in the immediate term. Sources in the SAIRI say Hakim -- whose father Grand Ayatollah Muhsin al-Hakim was spiritual head of the Shiites between 1955 and 1970 — will be leaving the SAIRI's day-to-day politics to his younger brother, Abdul Aziz al-Hakim.
| It's that family business thing... |
Abdul Aziz — an astute and experienced cleric-turned-politician — has been appointed to a nucleus of an emerging Iraqi leadership by the retired US general now running Iraq.
Diplomats from coalition powers said they were keen to bring the SAIRI on board rather than isolate the group and its backers in Iran. And Ayatollah Hakim, his aides say, will be concentrating on his role as a "political and spiritual leader" of the Shiite community, which represents 60 percent of the Iraqi population.
| "Yasss... I feel it my duty to look out for the intersests of the little people. They love me, y'know? |
Analysts interpret this as the SAIRI leader being eager to make a discreet return — possibly on Friday — in which he can gauge his own constituency among the the wealth of Shiite factions now operating in southern Iraq.
And even though the SAIRI had maintained an extensive network of cells inside Saddam's Iraq, Hakim has also been out of the country for 23 years -- mostly in a heavily-guarded compound in central Ayatollaburg Tehran. The ayatollah has survived seven assassination attempts, as well as losing much of his close family to quaint local customs political killings — another cause for keeping a cautious profile after an emotional return. Hakim will also have a delicate task on his hands regarding the role of the Badr Brigade, the several thousand-strong armed wing of SAIRI. This highly-disciplined and well-equipped militia was recently accused by US Secretary of State Donald Rumsfeld of being "trained, equipped and commanded by the Revolutionary Guards" — Iran's ideological army.
| But they were much too important to waste fighting against Sammy... |
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