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Hazem al-Araji Hazem al-Araji Mehdi Army Iraq 20051104 Link

Iraq
Sadrist Movement calls for 'million' demonstration in Baghdad
2022-08-14
[Rudaw] The Sadrist Movement on Saturday called for Iraqi protestors to flock from different provinces to the capital of Baghdad in a massive show of protest titled the "million" people demonstration as political unrest between Iraq's rival forces reaches its peak.

"I count on you and I feel courageous not to be let down by you ... through a united (peaceful) (million) demonstration from all Iraq's provinces, regions, villages, and neighborhoods, and even from all its alleys and homes to go to the beloved capital, Baghdad, and to Tahrir Square, and then to your protesting brothers to support reform for the love of Iraq," read a tweet from Salih Mohammed al-Iraqi, a figure close to leader Moqtada Tater al-Sadr
...hereditary Iraqi holy man and leader of a political movement in Iraq. He had his hereditary rival, al-Khoei, assassinated only a few hours after the holy rival's appearance out of exile in 2003. Formerly an Iranian catspaw, lately he's gagged over some of their more outlandish antics, then went back to catspawry...
The political turmoil in Iraq has reached staggering depths, with constant protests held in Baghdad since late July by Sadr supporters and rivals of the pro-Iran
...The nation is noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence...
Coordination Framework.

The two sides maintain polarizing views regarding Iraq's future, with the former supporting the dissolution of parliament and holding snap elections while the latter refusing the dissolution of the legislature without a return to parliament sessions, which are currently obstructed due to Sadrist sit-ins in the capital's Green Zone in the vicinity of the parliament.

The Sadrist figure urged for a "million march carrying the flags of Iraq and the banners of reform and liberation ... that shake the thrones of the miserable" in Baghdad to send a message that "Iraq is with reform and there is no place for corruption and the corrupt," while warning that Iraq is on the cusp of "another dictator."

Meanwhile,
...back at the saw mill, Scarface Al had tied Little Nell to the log and was about to turn on the buzz saw...
a representative of Sadr said on Saturday said that demonstrations will continue until reform is achieved and corruption is ousted from Iraq.

"We will continue until the demands are achieved and the faces of the corrupt are removed," Hazem al-Araji, the representative of the Sadrist Movement leader told Rudaw on Saturday night.

Supporters of Sadr have held a sit-in in the heavily fortified Green Zone since late July demanding the dissolution of parliament, constitutional reform, and early elections. Their demands are opposed by Coordination Framework loyalists, who have staged counter-protests in Baghdad against the demands of the Sadrist Movement.

The Sadrist figure's statement further warned that Iraq has become an "easy prey to corruption, injustice, militias, dependency, and the whims of corrupt parties," and called on all of Iraq's components to rise against such injustice.

Large rallies were held by supporters of Sadr and rivals Coordination Framework on Friday, and Sadrist protestors reiterated their demands of holding snap elections and the dissolution of the parliament. The Coordination Framework's supporters rejected their rivals' demands and instead called for reform.

On Wednesday, Sadr called on Iraq's Supreme Judicial Council to dissolve the parliament by the "end of next week" and task the president with setting early elections, saying that the judiciary retains the authority to dissolve the parliament without the need of a parliamentary session to be held.

Sadr's statement contradicts that of major rival and former prime minister Nouri al-Maliki, who said on Monday that there will be no dissolution of parliament or early elections should the parliament not return to holding sessions and call to do so itself.

Iraq held early elections in October 2021, but has failed to form a government and has been grasped with a suffocating political deadlock, with the country currently experiencing a record nearly ten months without a permanent cabinet.
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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Iraqi Cleric Sadr Visits Syria from Exile in Iran
2010-07-18
[Asharq al-Aswat] Self-exiled Iraqi radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr visited Damascus on Saturday from his base in Iran for talks with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Iraqi affairs.

During the meeting, Assad urged Iraqi leaders to quickly form a government and put an end to a four-month coalition stalemate, the official SANA news agency reported.

"Any delay to form a (national unity) government will have a negative impact on the situation in Iraq," Assad was quoted as telling his guest, stressing that a new cabinet should be set up "as soon as possible."

Iraqi politicians have failed to form a new government since former premier Iyad Allawi's narrow victory over incumbent Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki in the March 7 parliamentary polls.

The bloc of anti-US cleric Sadr, who is rarely seen in public and who lives in self-imposed exile in Iran, gained 39 seats in the new 325-strong parliament, against 91 for Allawi and 89 for Maliki - both Shiite Muslims.

Initially Sadr was opposed to the return of Maliki as prime minister but in May he said he removed his objection under certain conditions.

SANA quoted Sadr as praising Syria for its support of the Iraqi people and "for working in favour of security and stability in Iraq."

Hazem al-Araji, a Sadr bloc MP, told AFP in Baghdad that the cleric travelled to Damascus "at the official invitation of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to discuss Iraqi affairs."

Sadr's visit to Syria - his second since July last year - comes after Iraqi legislators on Monday extended an inaugural parliamentary session by two weeks to give political leaders a chance to form a government.
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Iraq
Aide to Iraq's Sadr: "No handover of arms"
2008-03-31
Followers of Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr will not hand over their weapons as part of a move to end a week of fighting in Iraq, a top Sadr aide said.

"The weapons of the resistance will not be delivered to the Iraqi government," he told journalists at Sadr's office in the holy city of Najaf.
The aide, Hazem al-Araji, also said that Sadr's followers had received a guarantee from the government that it would end "random arrests" of Sadr followers. "The weapons of the resistance will not be delivered to the Iraqi government," he told journalists at Sadr's office in the holy city of Najaf after distributing a statement from Sadr calling on followers to stop fighting.
Notice they're referring to themselves in the same terms as Hamas and Hezbollah.
Sadr's statement also called for the government to halt arrests of his followers and implement an amnesty law to free prisoners. "We confirm that there were guarantees taken from the Iraqi government to fulfill all the points in this statement. Thus, no more random arrests," he said.
Sounds like a claim of victory to me. Don't let it stand unless you enjoy paying high interest credit cards.
The Iraqi government launched a crackdown on Sadr followers in the southern city of Basra last week. Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki ordered them to surrender and has offered cash in return for heavy and medium weapons handed over by April 8.
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Iraq
Calls to reopen Baghdad bridge between Sunnis, Shias
2007-12-22
BAGHDAD - Talks are underway to reopen the key bridge linking Shia and Sunni districts of the Iraqi capital closed almost three years ago due to bloody sectarian violence, a top official said on Friday. “We have exchanged messages with Sunni officials from the Adhamiyah district over the reopening of the bridge,” said Hazem al-Araji from Moqtada al-Sadr’s group in the Kadhimiyah area.

Almost 1,000 people were killed in 2005 in a stampede on Al-Aima bridge triggered by a mortar attack and rumours that a suicide bomber was among several thousand Shiite pilgrims marking a religious holiday. The bridge which spans the Tigris River was closed in February 2005, even before the stampede disaster, after tensions between Iraq’s two main Muslim and became a symbol of the divisions within the country.

Araji said his office had contacted influential Sunni religious leader Sheikh Abdul Ghafur al-Samarai during the current Muslim feast of Eid al-Adha, adding the reopening of the bridge would be highly “symbolic”. “Kadhimiyah represents the Shias of Baghdad and Adhimiyah represents the Sunnis. We must reopen the bridge. It is the people who want it. There is a will from both sides to reopen the bridge,” said Araji. “The government must take measures to make the reopening of the bridge possible,” he said, suggesting the introduction of checkpoints.

“The reopening must be carefully prepared and security must be put in place to avoid incitements,” he said.
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Iraq
Tater slams al-Qaida
2005-11-04
A cleric close to Shia leader Muqtada al-Sadr has called on Iraqis to unite and fight al-Qaida during prayers being held to mark the Muslim festival of Eid al-Fitr Iraqis must "unite to fight terrorism and to get rid of people like al-Qaida," said the cleric Hazem al-Araji. These groups "sometimes act in the name of Ansar as-Sunna (partisans of the Sunnis), but they are enemies of the Sunnis,” he said on Thursday. "You who call yourselves Qaida al-Jihad (base of the holy war), you are the base of apostasy," he said, referring to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's group. Since Saturday, at least 71 people have been killed in bombing attacks on Shia Muslim targets.
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Iraq-Jordan
Report: Iraqi Guard Members Released
2004-09-20
Eighteen Iraqi National Guard members held hostage have been released, the Arab television station Al-Jazeera said Monday. The station showed a videotape of men who were apparently the soldiers. The men had shed their combat fatigues and were now in traditional white robes, clutching Qurans. The announcer said that a member of the group holding the men, the Brigades of Mohammed bin Abdullah, read a statement that said the release came in response to a demand by rebel Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. The news reader also said that the statement offered a warning to all who cooperate with those it called the forces occupying Iraq. The group had threatened to kill the captives unless one of al-Sadr's aides was freed within 48 hours, the station said Sunday. U.S. and Iraqi forces detained the aide, Hazem al-Araji, in a weekend raid on al-Sadr's Baghdad offices. Al-Sadr denounced the abduction and called for the hostages release on Monday, a spokesman for the cleric said, adding that al-Sadr's followers had nothing to do with the kidnapping.
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Iraq-Jordan
Sadr's lieutenant arrested
2004-09-19
SHEIKH Hazem al-Araji, rebel Shiite Muslim cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's Baghdad lieutenant, and his brother were arrested overnight by US-backed Iraqi security forces, a relative and fellow Sadr supporter said today. Iraqi national guardsmen barged into their homes in the capital at 2am (8am AEST), breaking down the doors and firing off a couple of stun grenades, a second brother of Araji, named Kemal, told AFP. "Their only crime is that they are both part of the Sadr movement," said Sadr movement official Naim Kaabi, blaming obscure interest groups for spoiling attempts to end clashes between Sadr loyalists and US-Iraqi government troops. "We protest against Araji's arrest and are waiting for the government or the Americans to tell us why he has been detained," said Kaabi, an engineer.

Prime Minister Iyad Allawi had "promised to stop arrests and release prisoners, so we were surprised that the opposite is happening," Kaabi said. Asked who he thought the spoilers might be, he suggested they were political forces within the government opposed to resolving the conflict or perhaps Americans looking for reasons to justify a longer stay in the country. For their part, the US military said late yesterday that tribal sheikhs in Sadr City were in talks with the Baghdad City Council over a 12-point plan to restore peace to the Shiite slums, home to over two million people. Last month, Sadr pulled his Mehdi Army militia out of Iraq's holy cities of Najaf and Kufa on the order of Shiite spiritual leader Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani. But his fighters have continued to clash with US troops in Baghdad. Forty people were killed in Sadr City on September 7. Kaabi denied there was any link between the arrests in Baghdad and incidents in the southern port city of Basra yesterday, where Mehdi Army militiamen clashed with British soldiers. In April, Araji was briefly detained by US soldiers after giving an interview.
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Iraq-Jordan
Sadr supporters flock to flypaper Najaf
2004-08-14
THOUSANDS of Iraqis loyal to Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr were at the gates of the central Iraq city of Najaf today, where he and his militia have held out against a US-led assault over the past week. Many of the demonstrators arrived in buses and were led by Sheikh Hazem al-Araji, a senior Sadr aide in Baghdad. He had urged people during yesterday's weekly prayer to march to Najaf in protest against the US assault. A spokesman for Sadr said early today that the militia had agreed to a ceasefire to allow for peace talks with the government and the US military.
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Iraq-Jordan
Deal with Tater Sadr near
2004-04-21
The US military in Iraq was yesterday on the brink of striking a deal with the radical Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr after two days of secret negotiations. An Iraqi political party that has been mediating said agreement had been reached on virtually all issues.

But the US was still insisting that Mr Sadr - who led the recent Shia uprising against the US occupation of Iraq, and is holed up in Najaf with thousands of armed followers - stand trial for the murder last year of a moderate Iraqi cleric. "We are trying to solve the problem. The US wants a guarantee that Iraqis will try him. But it is impossible for us to arrest him," a mediator, Jawad al-Maliki, said yesterday, before setting off to Najaf from Baghdad for further talks.
It's okay, we can do the arresting part.
Mr Maliki, a spokesman for the moderate Shia Da'awa party, added: "I don't think there is a power on earth that can detain Mr Sadr. The problem isn't him. It's his followers."
Send a Texas Ranger. One riot, one Ranger. Worked before.
With an agreement close in Najaf and with refugees trickling back into the besieged town of Falluja, tensions in Iraq appeared to be easing yesterday after the bloodiest month since the fall of Saddam Hussein a year ago. Witnesses said some shops had reopened and Iraqi police were going back to work. The returnees were venturing back a day after the US military said it would not resume offensive operations in Falluja - as long as resistance fighters inside the city gave up their heavy weapons.

"I am confident that the guerrillas will turn in their heavy weapons as long as the Americans provide the guarantees they promised," Fawzi Muthin, a member of Falluja's delegation said. He added: "I just hope we learn from the experience. The Americans have failed in Iraq over the last year. "They have to treat us with respect as humans and deliver on the promises they made."
You, on the other hand, have to turn over the thugs, jihadis and Ba'athists, or you won't have a country next year.
US commanders said they had no current plans to storm Mr Sadr's stronghold in Najaf, even though the cleric's forces continue to vex the coalition. Embarrassing pictures were broadcast yesterday on the al-Arabiya TV station showing jubilant fighters belonging to Mr Sadr's Mahdi army driving around in an ambushed American Humvee.
More reason to squash him like a wormy apple.
An aide to Mr Sadr, Sayed Hazem al-Araji, confirmed that "top secret" negotiations to end the standoff in Najaf were in progress. He said the cleric had several demands, including that coalition troops be placed under the control of the UN.
Time for another application of the ClueBat.
He also wanted a swift trial for Saddam. Sources close to the negotiations said Mr Sadr had agreed to the coalition's demand that his militia army should be turned into a political organisation. He had also promised to respect the authority of the new Iraqi government, due to take power on June 30.

"We want guarantees that the voice of Mr Sadr will not be marginalised," Mr Araji said. He maintained that the cleric was innocent of all charges against him, and added: "We are sceptical he can receive a fair trial. At the moment Iraqi law is subject to American law. There isn't an independent judiciary."
"He wuz framed!"
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Great White North
Sadr supporting cleric arrested yesterday is Vancouver Imam
2004-04-15
A Muslim cleric from the Vancouver area who was arrested in Iraq on Tuesday is a staunch supporter of the high-level Iraqi cleric currently locked in a bloody showdown with U.S. troops, say two B.C. Muslims.
But Imam Sayed Hazem al-Araji -- who was released by U.S. forces after five hours -- generally did not preach in favour of controversial Iraqi leader Moqtada al-Sadr while he was in B.C. because he didn’t want to exacerbate conflict in the local Iraqi community, said a former board member at the Surrey mosque where al-Araji served.
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Iraq-Jordan
Al Sadr aide arrested
2004-04-13
US troops have arrested Shi’ite Muslim radical leader Moqtada al Sadr’s top aide, according to reports. Hazem al Araji, a cleric and aide to al Sadr for a northern Baghdad district, was seized as he was leaving the Palestine Hotel after being interviewed by Italian journalists.
One last question Mr Araji, care to comment on the group of soldiers pointing guns at you?
It follows news that the week-long revolt in Iraq has forced the commander of US forces in the Middle East to call for 10,000 more troops to restore order...
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