Nahrainnet: Iran move aimed at countering the American attempt to exterminate the Sadrist trend

Nahrainnet.net, another Sadrist news-site, underlines the significance of the Iranian decision to refuse resumption of security talks with the United States until the US stops its "brutal attacks" on Sadr City and elsewhere in Iraq.

In a move that demonstrates the extent of Iranian anxiety about the danger of the alliance between the Iraqi government and the American forces turning to operations of extermination [ibada: extermination, annihilation] against the Sadrist trend, and which has already left over 3000 martyrs and wounded since [March 25]...Iran stipulated that a halt to the attacks by the American army in Sadr City is a condition for resumption of its talks with the US regarding Iraq. This is the first clear statement by Iran about the attack by the American forces, with participation by the Iraqi forces, on the Mahdi Army.

The writer adds it can be expected that this will have a positive effect on the Sadrist trend and on the popular forces that support it.

He also says it is significant that the Iranian authorities saw fit to direct this accusation to the Americans and not directly to the Iraqi government, because it indicates their correct understanding about which of the two is the actual decision-maker.

[Addressing this to the Americans, he writes] shows that they understand that the [Iraqi] government does not possess the power to decide whether to attack or to desist. Rather, this power is first and last in the hands of the American forces, which hold in their hands the security portfolio in all of its details. Maliki is nothing but the Iraqi tool that the occupation is using to liquidate the Mahdi Army and end the power of the Sadrist trend.