Firebrand Iraqi cleric will defend Iran and Syria

Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, Feb. 06 – Radical Iraqi Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr said on Monday that he will defend Iran and Syria against foreign aggression, the Fars news agency which his owned by the Office of the Supreme Leader reported.
Iran Focus

Tehran, Iran, Feb. 06 – Radical Iraqi Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr said on Monday that he will defend Iran and Syria against foreign aggression, the Fars news agency which his owned by the Office of the Supreme Leader reported.

Sadr made the comments after meeting and holding talks with Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad in Damascus.

“I am in the service of Syria and Iran”, Sadr said, adding that he was willing to support Islamic nations through “any means”.

The firebrand cleric described the United States and Britain as the “enemies of Iraq”.

“We will defend Iran and Syria”, Sadr said.

In January, Sadr was in Tehran where he met and held talks with senior Iranian officials.

There he vowed to support Iran if it ever came under foreign military aggression. “If neighbouring Islamic countries, including Iran, come under attack, then the Mahdi Army will support them”, he said.

Sadr’s armed militia, the Mahdi Army, launched an offensive against United States-led forces in Iraq in April 2004. The attempted uprising was, however, quashed after several military offensives by U.S. troops and the political intervention of Iraq’s senior Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani.