[AA.TR] The storming of the Iraqi parliament by supporters of Shia leader 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...
has the potential to trigger an armed conflict among Shia groups, former U.S. envoy to Syria Robert Ford told Anadolu Agency Saturday.
"Certainly it means two things," Ford said. "It means, number one, there can be more political and maybe armed conflict between different Iraqi Shia elements between Moqtada al-Sadr and Nour al Maliki-supported groups, and maybe between militias belonging to some of the Iranian-backed groups and Moqtada al-Sadr supporters."
He added that al-Sadr was currently showing his strength, but it was not clear yet in whose favor the crisis would end up.
The veteran diplomat, who now works as a senior fellow at the Washington-based Middle East Institute, also noted former Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Barhan Saleh’s tweet earlier in the day, saying that Saturday’s crisis was "the end of 2003 political system."
Supporters of al-Sadr stormed Baghdad’s Green Zone Saturday forcing their way into the parliament building. They overran barriers set up around the heavily-fortified Green Zone, which houses a number of vital Iraqi state institutions and foreign diplomatic missions.
Speaking at a presser in Najaf city, located some 160 kilometers (99.4 miles) south of Baghdad, al-Sadr voiced his rejection of what he described as "a political system that fails to take the popular will into account."
He also announced the suspension of activities of his "Ahrar" political bloc, which holds 34 seats in parliament, asserting that Ahrar MPs would refrain from participating in upcoming assembly sessions.
The Iraqi army has since responded by declaring a state of high alert in the capital and sealing all entrances into the city.