Sadr Snubs Iraqi Envoys

NAJAF, Iraq —  Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada Sadr refused Tuesday to meet with a delegation of Iraqi political and religious figures that had rushed here from Baghdad with a last-ditch offer for peace. The rebuff deflated hopes for a quick resolution to the confrontation between Sadr’s militia and U.S. and Iraqi security forces.

The envoys had sought to personally demand that Sadr and his gunmen leave the sacred Imam Ali Mosque compound, where they have been holed up since intense fighting broke out Aug. 5, and convert his militia into a political organization. In exchange, they would receive amnesty and safe passage out of the shrine.

After making their way through a war zone to reach the shrine, the delegation waited in a darkened receiving room for three hours but had to go back to Baghdad without the hoped-for meeting.

Sadr aide Qais Khazali said the cleric had declined to meet with the group because of continuing assaults in Najaf by U.S. forces, and he accused the Americans of “preventing peaceful negotiations.” The U.S. military said it had tried to scale back the fighting for the evening meeting but returned fire when attacked.

It was unclear late Tuesday whether the delegation would return to Najaf to again try to meet with Sadr. However, several delegation members expressed hope that they would return in two or three days.

Meanwhile, U.S. and Iraqi military commanders pursued a second track for dealing with the recalcitrant cleric, spending the day in strategy sessions preparing to assault Sadr and his armed militia in the shrine.

Sadr’s refusal to meet with the delegation, coupled with the desire of both the Iraqi government and the American military to end the siege in Najaf, makes military action more likely in the coming days. At the same time, such an approach is fraught with risks.

The gold-domed shrine the militants have occupied is one of the holiest sites in the Shiite Muslim world. Imam Ali, the prophet Muhammad’s son-in-law, is thought to be buried there. Serious damage to the shrine would probably set off violent protests throughout Shiite areas of Iraq as well as in neighboring Muslim countries.

Although the Iraqi government has given permission for Iraqi forces to enter the shrine to remove Sadr and his armed men, such an attack could result in a bloodbath. The shrine is in an enclosed courtyard, and if the Iraqi police and national guard stormed the building, Sadr gunmen on the roofs and loggias of the shrine would be positioned to pick many of them off.

Regardless of the outcome of the delegation’s visit, some Iraqi politicians said, it was an important step toward resolving the standoff.

“The initiative was an excellent idea because it puts the onus on Muqtada Sadr to respond,” said Samir Shakir Mahmoud Sumaidy, a former interior minister who was on the now-disbanded U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council.

The delegation to Najaf made the trip after a conference in Baghdad of more than 1,100 representatives from across Iraq voted in favor of attempting to offer a peace deal to Sadr.

As the peace effort proceeded, the conference, which is selecting an interim national assembly, extended its meeting by a day to provide extra time for back-room politicking as tempers flared over the method adopted for electing the assembly’s members.

Much of the behind-the-scenes debate at the conference Tuesday centered on a demand by Shiite religious parties for a majority of seats in the assembly, people close to the negotiations said. A high-level delegation was dispatched Tuesday evening to discuss the demand with Abdelaziz Hakim, a cleric and a leader of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq, one of the religious parties.

The eight envoys who went to Najaf to meet Sadr flew in two U.S. Black Hawk helicopters. Their flight was arranged by the office of interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi. They then traveled under Iraqi police escort to the Imam Ali shrine.

The group refused to travel in armored U.S. military vehicles for fear it would give the wrong impression to the staunchly anti-American Sadr forces and to others in Najaf, who may not support Sadr but are also antagonistic to the U.S. presence in the holy city.

In a measure of the riskiness of the security situation, the delegation’s plans to drive to Najaf early Tuesday with a large group had to be scrapped because of intelligence that there were at least three ambushes planned in the town of Latifiya, said Fawzi Hamza, a member of the delegation.

Once in Najaf, the group entered a war zone. There was the regular boom of Bradley guns echoing through the narrow alleys of the Old City near the shrine and the sharper bangs of the rocket-propelled grenades fired by Sadr’s Al Mahdi militia. While parts of the city distant from the shrine were largely deserted, streets close to the holy site were packed with young Sadr militiamen hoisting assault rifles and grenade launchers.

In the shrine’s marble courtyard, the group was surrounded by 1,000 Al Mahdi militiamen stamping their feet, raising their fists into the air and shouting, “Long live Muqtada!”

Although Sadr would not meet with the delegation, his representatives said he welcomed their proposal, participants said.

“We had a feeling that the office of Muqtada Sadr is positive,” said Hussein Sadr, the leader of the delegation and a distant cousin of the cleric.

“The office says Muqtada Sadr doesn’t reject what came from the national conference. The message reached Muqtada Sadr. We hope there will be better circumstances to meet with him.”

A few days ago, Sadr similarly refused to meet with Mouwafak Rabii, the interim government’s national security advisor, who had traveled to Najaf to try to work out a peaceful resolution to the situation.

Although the participants in Tuesday’s peace initiative avoided voicing disappointment, it was clear they had expected more.

Before leaving for the shrine, Anwar Ajil Yawer, brother-in-law of interim President Ghazi Ajil Yawer, said: “If he’s not there, we are leaving. We’re not talking to anyone else.”

But when the delegation completed its visit, Yawer insisted that he remained optimistic and attributed Sadr’s failure to greet the group to ongoing fighting around the city. “After two or three days, we will try again,” Yawer said.

“We want to stop this before it becomes a Niagara Falls of blood,” he said.

Akeel Saffar, another envoy and a member of the prime minister’s political party, the Iraqi National Accord, said: “At least we showed Muqtada Sadr good faith. Now let’s see what Muqtada does.”

In contrast, U.S. military leaders expressed skepticism about the delegation’s visit, fearing further talks would only give Sadr more time to regroup and rearm his militia.

“These are not peace talks,” said Maj. David Holahan, executive officer of the 1st Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment, emphasizing that the delegates were not members of the Iraqi interim government.

The extent of government support for the peace initiative was unclear, despite the close ties of some delegates to the Iraqi leadership and the role of the prime minister’s office in arranging transportation.

In Baghdad, as the conference met Tuesday morning, a mortar round landed on a busy thoroughfare lined with small stores and industrial workshops, killing seven people and injuring nearly 50 others. It was unclear whether the mortar shell was aimed at the conference site a couple of miles away. Two other explosions closer to the convention center injured at least two people, Associated Press reported

Tuesday was supposed to have been the last day of the conference, but many participants felt strongly that they should wait for the delegation they had sent to Najaf to return.

There was also widely voiced discontent with the system the conference had adopted to elect the assembly, which will have veto power over legislation approved by the executive branch and authority to approve the budget. The delegates have to vote for a slate of 81 candidates, meaning that they probably will have to support some individuals they think are not qualified.

An additional 19 people, former members of the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council, will automatically become members of the assembly.

Ahmad Chalabi, a former Governing Council member, is also eligible for membership, but because an arrest warrant was recently issued for him in a counterfeiting case, he has been discouraged from attending the sessions, said supporters of his party, the Iraqi National Congress.

The conference is expected to wrap up today with the election of the interim national assembly, which will serve until general elections are held in early 2005.

Sanders reported from Najaf and Rubin from Baghdad. Times staff writer Henry Chu in Baghdad contributed to this report.