Sadr blinks?

The whole ceasefire may have broken down by the time you read this, but the Daily Telegraph reports that Moqtada al-Sadr - holed up in a religious shrine, surrounded by the world's most powerful army and abandoned by moderate Shi'ites - is trying to reach a face-saving deal to end his violent uprising:

The fiery radical at the heart of Iraq's Shia revolt sued for peace yesterday, buckling under the twin pressures of a massive build-up of American forces near his base and demands for moderation from the country's ayatollahs.

Moqtada al-Sadr, who raised the standard of anti-American revolt 12 days ago, sent out envoys from the holy city of Najaf carrying his peace terms. Barely 13 miles from his hideout, United States tanks and heavy artillery began to enforce an "exclusion zone", apparently a first step towards an assault.
[...]
Sources close to the cleric said he had dropped his demand that American forces pull back from Najaf and release prisoners before he would enter talks.

Haider Aziz, one of Sadr's translators, disclosed the radical leader's peace terms: "He does not want to be attacked, he wants his personal safety and he wants coalition forces to withdraw from Najaf."

If an agreement is reached, an American-led assault on a city sacred to the Shia strand of Islam will have been averted and Washington may well claim a triumph for its unbending policy since the fighting began. A nationwide Shia revolt will have been avoided and Iraq will step back from the brink of collapse, at least for the present.

Ideally, the Americans should not be negotiating with this man. Realistically, considering what's been happening in Iraq these past few weeks, they may have little choice.

Posted by damian at April 15, 2004 11:03 AM