Washington, June 23: A senior Iraqi Shiite leader, grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, has expressed "great unease" about the 10-week-old US occupation and demanded that the Americans allow Iraqis to rule themselves. "We feel great unease over their goals, and we see that it is necessary that they should make room for Iraqis to rule themselves by themselves without foreign intervention," Sistani said in a written response to questions from the Washington Post.
Sistani, viewed by US officials as a crucial force for moderation in the turbulent postwar aftermath, stopped far short of demanding a withdrawal.
But his words seemed to signal growing anxiety among the country's leadership over the direction of the US occupation, the report said.
Echoing other Shiite clerics, Sistani also warned that the biggest threat facing Arab country is "the obliteration of its cultural identity".
A reclusive scholarly figure, Sistani has not been seen in public since before the us-led invasion began in march. His replies were put in written form by his son and spokesman Mohammed Rida Sistani, who acts on his father's authority.
Bureau Report