STRICTLY POLITICAL::

Moqtada Sadr Urges Iraqi Unity (SAM DAGHER, 1/08/11, WSJ)

In his first public speech to supporters following his return to Iraq this week after more than three years in Iran, firebrand cleric Moqtada al-Sadr sounded a conciliatory note toward the new Iraqi government while insisting that U.S. troops should depart on schedule by year-end.

"Listen up, we're all with the government if it served the Iraqi people and if it did not serve the Iraqi people there are other means – strictly political – that must be pursued to reform the government," Mr. Sadr told a few thousand of his supporters who had gathered on Saturday outside his home here in this holy Shiite shrine city south of Baghdad. [...]

"Give the new government a chance to prove that it's in the service of the people," said Mr. Sadr. "Iraqi people have had enough of poverty."