NAJAF, April 14: Shia leader Moqtada Sadr has agreed to drop all his conditions for negotiations with the US-led coalition, a close aide said on Wednesday.
In a related development, an official Iranian delegation arrived in Iraq to help avert violence.
"Moqtada Sadr is ready to accept what the Marjaiya (the top Shia spiritual leaders) ask for and to drop the conditions he had set for a mediation," Qais al-Khazaali told a press conference in Najaf. He said the Marjaiya had chosen a delegation to negotiate with the US side a settlement of the crisis.
US forces were on Wednesday poised to capture or kill Mr Sadr, who is holed up in Najaf and wanted for the alleged murder of a rival cleric last year. Mr Sadr has told journalists he is ready for outside mediation to end the standoff peacefully. Mr Khazaali, however, said on Wednesday that Mr Sadr's loyalists were prepared to resist "political pressure as well as a (military) confrontation."
"The reinforcements which the US military talks about are aimed at either putting pressure to secure political concessions or at invading Najaf," said Mr Khazaali. "We are ready to face both scenarios."
US commanders said they were massing troops around Najaf a day after US President George W. Bush warned that Mr Sadr must answer murder charges against him and disband his banned Mehdi Army.
IRANIAN TEAM: Meanwhile, an official Iranian delegation arrived in Iraq from Tehran to try to avert violence and was expected to meet Mr Sadr, according to an aide to the firebrand cleric.
"The Iranian foreign ministry delegation has arrived but we still do not know the identities of the members of this delegation," said Haidar Aziz, who presents himself as a close aide and personal interpreter for Mr Sadr. Tehran earlier said it had received a US request for assistance to mediate in the conflict.
UK ROLE: Britain had invited the Iranian delegation to visit Iraq and the US did not object, a senior State Department official said on Wednesday. "They were invited by the British," the official said. "Obviously, we did not object."-AFP
