[Interview with Shaykh Hasan al-Zarqani, official in charge of external relations in the Al-Sadr Trend, by Adnan Abusalim in Damascus; date not given: "The security agreement is binding only on those that sign it; there is no evidence to the claims that Muqtada is subservient to Iran"]

[Abusalim] The Iraqi Government headed by Nuri al-Maliki intends to sign a long-term agreement with the occupation forces. What is the position of the Al-Sadr Trend on this agreement?

[Al-Zarqani] From the very beginning and as soon as the draft of the agreement intended to be concluded between the prime ministry and the government of the US occupation leaked out, we openly and publicly proclaimed our rejection, condemnation, and denunciation of this humiliating agreement that undermines Iraq's sovereignty and the will of the Iraqi people in the long run rather than the short run. The agreement is not equally balanced since there are two parties. The first party is the United States with all the elements of its power and arrogance. The second party is the frail and weak party, that is, the unripe Iraqi Government that has not yet completed the elements of its power. Even if it does complete the elements of its power, this government is not in a position that allows it to sit with the United States as an equal. Thus, the Iraqi Government will not have the power to conclude such an agreement that is in the definite interest of the Iraqi people [sentence as published]. The United States is passing through a critical situation at this stage, particularly since the United Nations has approved the legitimacy of the stay of these forces until the end of this year. After this period, the issue of the United States staying [in Iraq] has to be rationalized and it should be legalized by the Iraqi Government through the Iraqi parliament through which it can guarantee the duration of its stay and to use all the territories with Iraqi legitimacy in addition to the legitimacy of its forces inside Iraq and the region. This will silence all those opposing since this agreement would have passed through the constitutional and legitimate channels of the Iraqi Government and the Iraqi Parliament. If we were to follow the phase that preceded the second announcement of the draft that was released for the second time and that the media propagated a lot and around which the talk is revolving at present, we would find that the United States turned to the principal opponent of this agreement. I definitely do not wish to deny the right of the rest of the Iraqis in opposing this agreement for there definitely is a strong opposition. However, the United States wanted to start with the stronger side, if I may say so, in order to teach the others a lesson. It turned to the Al-Sadr Trend and opened fronts against it from the city of Basra to Al- Sadr City and everything in between. It went even further than that when it opened fictitious fronts under the pretext of fighting the outlaws, the oil lines, and the ports. They know very well that the Al-Sadr Trend does not control the oil. They know that those controlling the oil are the political forces that are in agreement with the United States. As for the issue of breaking the law, it surfaced in a strange and arbitrary way. Using this issue, many innocent people were unjustifiably apprehended. I do not wish to go into details; however, I want to point out that they wanted to deal a strong blow to the Al-Sadr Trend within the sight and hearing of the various political sides that backed and supported the government in its efforts for many reasons. One of these reasons is that a political stew is being cooked that has stripped many political forces participating in the political process from their ministerial and governmental privileges. It found the suitable opportunity to bargain with the government to support its stand regarding its campaign against the Al-Sadr Trend in order to exploit the chance of returning to the government and profiting from gaining ministerial posts and so on. We did not see a local national opposition objecting to the fierce onslaught to which the Al-Sadr Trend was subjected. From this onslaught, Al-Maliki and the occupation forces tried to show the Iraqis that in case of an opposition and objection, the planes will return again to bomb the innocent homes again and that all kinds of internationally banned weapons will be used and that you have no champion and no support in front of the arrogance, might, and dictatorship of the new government. The wish was to muzzle the people and to subject them to harm so that they would not support those that oppose this agreement. Furthermore, they sought to suppress the spirit of the peaceful attempts that may lead to opposition to this project. They exploited several Friday prayers. They went to these areas that are highly populated during Friday prayers. They encircled them and besieged them and arrested all the worshippers in a serious and dangerous precedent.