The radical Iraqi Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr seemed to be ready yesterday to negotiate his way out of a worsening standoff with the US forces.
As 2,500 American soldiers massed on the outskirts of the holy city of Najaf, Mr Sadr's representatives suggested that he was ready to make a deal with the US authorities, less than two weeks after he began the violent uprising in the south.
In Najaf, a senior aide said Mr Sadr had dropped his earlier conditions for talks, which included the permanent withdrawal of foreign troops from Iraq's holy Shia cities and the release of members of his militia taken prisoner by the Americans.
"After the intervention of the religious authorities, Sayyid Moqtada al-Sadr has lifted these conditions and will negotiate without them being met," Qais al-Khazali said.
The climbdown happened after Iran sent a senior foreign ministry official to Baghdad to help negotiate an end to the impasse.
In Tehran the foreign minister, Mr Kamal Kharrazi, said the US had asked the Iranian government, through the Swiss embassy, to mediate in the dispute with Mr Sadr.
In Baghdad, Sheikh Raed al-Khadhemi al-Sa'adi, another of the cleric's deputies, said the group wanted to avoid further confrontations with US troops.
"Look how Sayyid Moqtada is talking about negotiation while the Americans are raising the pressure," he said in his office in Kadhimiya, in northern Baghdad. "We just need to calm everything down."
The US military has vowed to "kill or capture" Mr Sadr, and insists that he must disarm his militia, the Jaish al-Mahdi (Army of the Hidden Imam).
They also want him tried, suspecting he was involved in the murder of a moderate Shia cleric in Najaf a year ago.
In response to the US pressure, Mr Sadr has in the past two days withdrawn the militia from the police stations and government buildings it was occupying in Kufa, Najaf and Kerbala - three holy cities in the south.
Sheikh Sa'adi described the militia as "the army of the Iraqi people".
If the militia can be disbanded, then the last remaining obstacle to an agreement will be the question of the cleric himself. Sheikh Sa'adi said he did not recognise the arrest warrant issued by an Iraqi judge in recent months, under the guidance of the US authorities.
"This is not a legitimate government, so how can it bring Moqtada al-Sadr to trial?"
Some mediators from other influential Shia groups, particularly the Dawa party, have said that Mr Sadr may be ready after June 30th, when sovereignty is restored to the Iraqis, to face a religious, though not a criminal, court.
It is unclear whether the US authorities would be willing to agree to such a compromise. - (Guardian Service).