Anxious uncertainty about the Sadr Trend, following GZ bombing

The Kuwaiti paper AlWatan (another thank-you to LB of RoadstoIraq for highlighting this) says Iraqi vp Tareq alHashemi failed in an attempt to start discussions with the Sadrist movement to "stabilize" the situation, meaning to forestall a move to organized armed resistance following the signing of the security agreement; and the paper says other GZ politicians are still trying.

Their fear, the reporter says, is that the combination of strong statements by Ayatollah Kazem alHaeri (resides in Iran, looked to as the religious authority by most of the Sadr trend)--in outright opposition to the signing of the security agreement--along with the recent statement by Sadr on the formation of the Brigades of the Day of Judgment, seem to represent the laying of legal and administrative groundwork "for the launching of movement by special groups, including what happened with the hit on the headquarters of the UN in the Green Zone (on Saturday Nov 29) by Iranian-made rockets that appear to have been brought into Iraq recently".

Iraqi sources told the AlWatan reporter than investigations and searches following that attack showed that:

...the rockets were fired from the district of Baladat, which lies [just] outside the concrete barrier of Sadr City, the stronghold of the followers of the Sadrist trend. Investigations and searches by Iraqi forces in Baladat and Al-Amin showed there is a heavy concentration of these groups in the areas surrounding Sadr City, [something that came about after] Sadr City was ringed with concrete barriers to keep them out.

The reporter questioned the Luwaa Sumaisem, a senior person in the Sadrist political office, on the meaning of the announcement about formation of the Brigades of the Day of Judgment. Her answers were all to the effect that the primary motivation is political and cultural. Even a veiled question along these lines failed to draw her out:

[She] refused to comment on a question whether the formation of the Brigades of the Day of Judgment represented the laying of the foundation stone for the formation of a core for the [Sadrist] followers, saying only that this is an issue for the leadership of the trend, and [an issue having to do with] its reading of the political situation.