US embassy cable - 05BAGHDAD3945

C O N F I D E N T I A L BAGHDAD 003945 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/23/2025 
TAGS: IZ, KISL, PGOV, Shia Islamists, Parliament 
SUBJECT: TOP SHIA CLERGY URGE THE FAITHFUL TO APPROVE 
CONSTITUTION 
 
Classified By: POL COUNS Robert Ford, reason 1.4 (d) 
 
 1.  (C)  Grand Ayatollah Sistani, and other top Shia clerics 
in Najaf, 
 publicly have urged Iraqis to approve the draft 
constitution.  A 
member of the Shia Coalition in the National Assembly, Ali 
Debbagh, 
told PolCouns that he had met Sistani's son, Mohammed Reda, 
on 9/22. 
Mohammed Reda said that Sistani's office had issued the 
guidance about 
voting for the draft in the form of a response to a question 
submitted 
to the Grand Ayatollah.  The guidance reportedly is very 
short - 
simply an affirmation that the draft merits the approval of 
the Iraqi 
voter. 
 
2.  (C)  Debbagh said that he had asked Mohammed Reda if 
Debbagh should 
try to put out word of the Grand Ayatollah's guidance on the 
media, 
such as the widely watched al-Arabiyah TV network.  According 
to 
Debbagh, Mohammed Reda had declined, reasoning that Iraq's 
Sunni Arabs 
would react negatively if it appeared to them that the Grand 
Ayatollah 
was supporting the draft too strongly.  Debbagh also claimed 
that 
Mohammed Reda had said that if it appeared that the draft 
would be 
defeated in the October 15 referendum Sistani's office might 
issue 
stronger guidance to the Shia faithful. 
 
3.  (C)  Debbagh added that he attended a forum in Karbala on 
the 
evening of 9/22 at which the attendees expressed solid 
support for 
the draft constitution; he stated that after Friday prayers 
in 
Karbala on 9/23 there were several small demonstrations 
pledging to 
support it at the October 15 poll. 
 
4.  (C)  Comment:  Shia Islamist party SCIRI's Furat 
television, 
which broke the news about the Sistani guidance on 9/22 
evening, 
reported on the afternoon of 9/23 that the other top Najaf 
Shia 
clerics, ayatollahs Mohammed Said al-Hakim, Ishaq 
al-Fayyad and Bashir an-Najafi, also have come out in support 
of 
the draft constitution.  The unity among the top Najaf clergy 
will 
make it more difficult for lesser Shia clerics, such as the 
often unpredictable Muqtada as-Sadr, to oppose the draft 
constitution. 
Khalilzad