Juan Cole

Najaf Crisis and International Implications Iran: US Will Pay a ‘Heavy Price’ Iran warned the American government that it would “pay a heavy price” if its forces attacked the cities of Najaf and Karbala. Ayatollah Muhammad Taskhiri, the representative of Supreme Jurisprudent Ali Khamenei, told al-Hayat, “The American forces will have committed the biggest act […]

Rantisi and Najaf The Sunday Herald correctly points out that the Israeli murder of Abdul Aziz Rantisi, the head of the political wing of the Hamas party, on Saturday, will cause further trouble in Iraq. With al-Anbar province tense and US troops surrounding Najaf, one could not imagine a worse time for Bush to give […]

Story of the Arrest Warrant for Muqtada More on the back story of the warrant for Muqtada’s arrest. ‘ According to the brief, Juhy has found an eyewitness who is willing to testify that Sadr, who saw Khoei as a threat to his ambitions, became aware of Khoei’s visit and planned with his associates to […]

Clashes outside Kufa; Situation Tense in Shrine Cities ash-Sharq al-Awsat: A series of explosions shook the city of Kufa on Friday, and eyewitnesses saw dozens of armed militiamen hurrying to various parts of the city. Reports spoke of clashes with the foreign troops. At least four troop transport trucks full of Mahdi Army fighters left […]

Muqtada’s Friday Sermon: Marines should Surrender Muqtada al-Sadr announced in his Friday prayers sermon at Kufa on Friday that “truce negotiations [with the American forces] are useless,” and that he will not dissolve the Mahdi Army. He called on the nations that have forces in Iraq to desert the United States “to battle by itself.” […]

Clergy of Najaf to Mahdi Army: Go fight outside the City ash-Sharq al-Awsat: The clerics of the Najaf seminaries have called upon the Army of the Mahdi to go fight the Americans outside the city if they must, so as to avoid the spilling of innocent blood. They called on the militia to pursue peaceful […]

Mortar Shells Kill 8 in Mosul Things are so bad in Iraq, and so many people have been killed lately, that what would once have been my headline for today was barely picked up by the wire services. ash-Sharq al-Awsat says that guerrillas in Mosul accidentally launched their mortar shells into a civilian crowd, when […]

Negotiations over Muqtada al-Sadr al-Hayat: The Iranian delegation to Najaf is continuing its attempts to calm the situation, despite the assassination in Baghdad of the Iranian cultural attache, Khalil Na`imi. The Iranian delegation left for Najaf on Thursday to meet with Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani. It has decided not to meet with Muqtada al-Sadr after […]

Bluster and Begging: The Duality of US Foreign Policy in the Middle East The Bush administration requested Syria’s participation in “calming the situation” in Iraq. Bashar al-Asad received letters from Bush and Colin Powell concerning bilateral relations and Iraq. al-Hayat: At the same time, Gen. Myers insisted that foreign fighters continued to infiltrate from Syria […]