Iran behind cease-fire agreement
Sort of like adding insult to injury for the US at this point,
Iraqi lawmakers traveled to the Iranian holy city of Qom over the weekend to win the support of the commander of Iran's Qods brigades in persuading Shiite cleric Muqtada al Sadr to order his followers to stop military operations, members of the Iraqi parliament said.
. . .
The backdrop to Sadr's dramatic statement was a secret trip Friday by Iraqi lawmakers to Qom, Iran's holy city and headquarters for the Iranian clergy who run the country.
There the Iraqi lawmakers held talks with Brig. Gen. Qassem Suleimani, commander of the Qods (Jerusalem) brigades of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps and signed an agreement with Sadr, which formed the basis of his statement Sunday, members of parliament said.
I'm a little surprised by this, as I thought the US military would have played a more active role in trying to tamp down the fires and keep a lid on violence, though I suppose it's possible that they believed that this time, unlike all the others, they could actually deal Sadr a significant defeat.
The other important part of this story is the fact that members of Maliki's own party traveled to Qom to broker the cease-fire, apparently without asking him. He comes out of this looking even lamer than he did yesterday, and the US continues its uninterrupted streak of backing the wrong horse in Iraq.
