Sadr rejects U.S. presence after pullout

Iraqi Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr on Thursday cast doubts over a complete withdrawal by the U.S. troops from Iraq by the end of the year. In an interview with Al Arabiya, Sadr said he would resist any American presence in Iraq, including a civilian one, beyond the year-end when all U.S. forces are to depart nearly nine years after the invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein. Sadr, whose Mehdi Army militia once battled U.S. and Iraqi troops, has opposed any U.S. military footprint and his bloc is a key part of Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki’s fragile coalition. “We do not accept any kind of U.S. presence in Iraq, whether it is military or not,” Sadr said. “If they stay in Iraq, through a military or non-military (presence) ... we will consider them an occupation and we will resist them, whatever the price will be. Even a civilian presence, we reject it,” the cleric said. Sadr denied the withdrawal would create a security vacuum in Iraq. “The Iraqi government is capable of protecting the country in collaboration with the Iraqis,” he said. United States President Barack Obama has stated that all remaining U.S. troops, numbering at approximately 33,000, would be withdrawn from Iraq by Dec. 31 after Washington and Baghdad failed to agree on immunity for American soldiers. However, a U.S. embassy is to be maintained in Baghdad along with consular operations in Arbil in the northern Kurdish zone and in the southern oil city Basra. Sadr said that there should be a balanced relationship between Iraq and the United States. In September, he called on his followers to suspend attacks against U.S. troops to ensure they leave Iraq by the year-end deadline. Overall violence in Iraq has fallen from the peak of sectarian fighting in 2006-2007, though Iraqi security forces continue to battle a stubborn Sunni insurgency and Shiite militias still capable of lethal attacks