SISTANI ON KUWAIT SPAT, THE UIA

Over the past few weeks tensions have escalated between Iraq and Kuwait as the members of the respective parliaments have engaged in a war of words. Kuwait MPs have called on Iraq to pay back the large sums – 41 billion in total – that Kuwaitis believe Iraqis owe to them, and have said that Kuwait should pull its ambassador from Baghdad – just installed there last year – if Iraq does not commit to comply. Iraqis have demanded for years that other countries, especially Kuwait, cancel or dramatically reduce the debt totals in recognition that they were oppressed by the regime which took out the loans. Somewhat contradictorily, some Iraqi MPs have demanded that Kuwait compensate Iraq for enabling foreign troops to invade Iraq in 2003 and remove that regime!

Last Friday, the representative of the Ayatollah Ali Sistani in Karbala, Abd al-Mahdi Karbala’i, focused his sermon at the Imam Hussein Mosque on the issue, saying that Sistani “calls for adopting the language of dialogue and empathy between Iraq and Kuwaiti officials and an avoidance of language which escalates the media controversy,” adding that “Kuwaiti brothers” need to understand the “humanitarian and political situation in the new Iraq.” (al-Sharq al-Awsat, Sistani Representative Calls for Calm in Iraq-Kuwait Crisis; al-Rai (Kuwaiti), Sistani Representative Calls for Adopting Language of Dialogue).

Sistani’s intervention in the crisis coincided with a visit to Najaf by former prime minister Ibrahim Jaafari, currently head of the National Reform Faction (a Dawa splinter). As is typically the case when a major public figure meets with Sistani, Jaafari came out and spoke to reporters about Sistani’s instructions. On the issue of Kuwait, Jaafari – whose faction has a small number of seats in the parliament – said that the ayatollah emphasized what his representative had said publicly, that Iraqi parliamentarians needed to tone down the rhetoric (al-Baghdadiya, Sistani Confirms Need to Solve Differences with Neighboring Countries).

Another issue which has been roiling Shia politics in particular in recent weeks has been the attempt to reconstitute the now semi-defunct United Iraqi Alliance (UIA), which won 128 seats in the 275-seat parliament in 2005 based on implicit support from Sistani (the ayatollah never issued a fatwa, but his representatives put out the word that he was supporting it). This apparently was the primary purpose of Jaafari’s visit to Najaf. Jaafari has been meeting with people from ISCI and tentatively reconciling with his Dawa rival, Prime Minister Nuri Maliki. In this regard, Jaafari stated that Sistani told him that coalitions were matters “left to politicians themselves” and that Sistani would play no role (Radio Free Iraq, Jaafari: Sistani Calls for Not Involving the Marja’iya into Political Coalition Negotiations).

It has been apparent for the past couple of years that Sistani’s aides thought his association with the UIA was damaging to his authority, and have increasingly sought to distance him from the UIA and portray him as neutral as between Shia political parties. This is a continuation of that trend.