Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani knows a politician when he sees one.
In a recent comment by his representative, Ayatollah Sistani told Iraqi officials not worry about the politicians who are running on a cut and run platform (Obama)…
They are just saying that because it’s election time.
Aswat Aliraq reported:
A representative of top Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani on Friday called Iraqi officials to show patience during the U.S.-Iraq long-term deal negotiations, terming pledges of withdrawing foreign troops from Iraq as transitory and elections-oriented.
“The pledges to withdraw from Iraq given by (officials) from occupation forces countries are only for elections sake “, Ahmed al-Safi, a representative of Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, said at Friday prayer speech in Karbala.
The cleric noted “the reality of their pledges is that they desire their troops to stay in (Iraq)”.He pointed out “it accounted for their desire to draft an agreement to keep the presence of the troops in Iraq”.
The cleric called on Iraqi negotiator to be patient “in drafting the issues of such decisive agreement”.He stressed the importance of “announcing the agreement details to Iraqi intellectuals and people”.
Iraq and U.S. are negotiating a long-term agreement to govern the presence of the U.S. troops in Iraq. The proposed agreement is based on a declaration of principles signed between U.S. President George W. Bush and Iraqi Premier Maliki upon the latter’s visit to Washington in last November.
Funny, former Obama advisor, Samantha Power, said the same thing to the BBC before she was let go by the Obama campaign:
You can’t make a commitment in whatever month we’re in now, in March of 2008 about what circumstances are gonna be like in Jan. 2009. We can’t even tell what Bush is up to in terms of troop pauses and so forth. He will of course not rely upon some plan that he’s crafted as a presidential candidate or as a US senator.
He will rely upon a plan, an operational plan that he pulls together, in consultation with people who are on the ground, to whom he doesn’t have daily access now as a result of not being the president.
Obviously, the good ayatollah is not fazed by all of the “change” rhetoric.
