NAJAF — The firebrand Iraqi cleric whose followers make up a crucial swing vote said late Sunday the prime minister must resign as a first step to pull Iraq out of the morass that has all but paralyzed its government. Speaking to reporters from his headquarters in Najaf, cleric Muqtada Al-Sadr said he would not bow to pressure from Iran and other Shiite religious leaders to continue supporting Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki. He joins Sunni and Kurdish officials who seek to oust Al-Maliki, a Shiite, in the first major Shiite defection against the premier. Al-Sadr accused Al-Maliki's government of keeping Iraq's minorities away from power and failing to fix legal systems and other public services. He said he would direct his party's 40 lawmakers to support a no-confidence vote against Al-Maliki if he is sure other political blocs in parliament will provide the rest of the 163 votes needed. “The reforms are main goal, and the no-confidence vote is the beginning of the reforms,” Al-Sadr said in a rare and wide-ranging hour-long news conference. “And like ablution before prayers, reforms cannot happen without pressuring the government.” He added, “If the head is reformed, everything beyond it is reformed.” His declaration delivers a sharp blow to Al-Maliki's efforts to hold on to power. Al-Sadr's followers are the first major Shiite party to take sides against Al-Maliki. Al-Maliki media adviser Ali Al-Moussawi declined to comment on Al-Sadr's statements. The prime minister's aides have previously predicted any vote to replace Al-Maliki would fall short — as has Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd. Two other top Iraqi politicians — Kurdish regional president Massoud Barzani and the parliament speaker, Osama Al-Nujaifi, a Sunni, are pushing for Al-Maliki to resign. Political tensions that pit Iraq's main political coalitions against each other have been simmering for years. They split largely along religious and ethnic lines within days of US troops leaving Iraq last December. Al-Maliki's critics say he is using the government to settle old scores with Sunni Muslims after decades under Saddam Hussein's regime, and to prevent Kurds from raking in huge oil revenues at the expense of Baghdad. The prime minister's supporters deny he has let personal politics dictate government policy, pointing to Sunni and Kurdish officials in his Cabinet as evidence that he is inclusive. Months of speculation that Al-Sadr would defect from a political coalition that Al-Maliki cobbled together to keep his job after falling short in the 2010 national election, have spurred widespread fears that would cause an irreparable fracturing among Iraq's majority Shiites. In recent weeks, Al-Sadr has been summoned to Iran to discuss the political situation in what was seen as pressure by Tehran to remain with Al-Maliki. — AP
