Stop Fundamentalism – Iraqi Shiite political leader, Moqtada Al-Sadr said Wednesday that he will not bow to pressures from Iran to support al-Maliki’s government, reported Arabic news website Almalaf. He told reporters that he will not give up on the no-confidence vote in Iraqi parliament that to bring down Maliki from the post of Prime Minister in Iraq.
The Iraqi opposition to Maliki which includes Al-Iraqia bloc and the Kurds claims it has gain majority vote in the parliament enough to withdraw confidence from al-Maliki.
Sadr headed to Tehran Monday from Najaf to discuss options with Iran. At the same time a spokesman for the Sadrist movement announced that they have delivered 40 signatures of the parliament members who belong to the movement to President Talabani to be added to the signature list.
Sadrists have been under pressure from Iran to back down from position and withdraw their no-confidence vote.
Members of Iraqi Parliament are pressuring Maliki to resign and put another candidate in his place from his own National Alliance bloc. But Maliki is refusing to step down questioning the validity of the majority signatures. President Talabani says he has given the signatures to a committee to validate them.
Meanwhile, an Al-Iraqia bloc spokesman Heidar al-Mullah accused Iran and the United States of supporting the Nouri al-Maliki government. He said, “Questioning the validity of signatures is a desperate move Maliki to cling on to power.”
Iraq is facing a deepening political crisis as Maliki refuses to step down and his opponents led by the Al-Iraqis bloc and the Kurdistan region President Massoud Barzani are pressing with a majority vote in the parliament for his government to resign.
The political crisis raises concern about a new wave of street violence and bloodshed in Iraq. A suicide bomber detonated a car bomb near a Shiite Muslim office in central Baghdad. The explosion killed at least 25 people and wounded over 190 others.
