Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr is committed to a truce with US-led troops and his militia will be disbanded once foreign forces leave Iraqi soil, his Baghdad spokesman said today.
Reports on Arabic television stations and other media suggested on Sunday that Sadr had called off the truce, mediated by Shi'ite leaders, which ended an uprising launched against US troops in the holy city of Najaf in April.
"We are committed to the truce but peaceful resistance will remain until the last moment that foreign troops are present on Iraqi land," Sheikh Mahmoud Sudani told a news conference.
Last month, Sadr told members of his militia to go home, appearing to move away from armed confrontation towards a wider role in Iraqi politics. But he has urged Iraqis to oppose the continued presence of about 160,000 mainly US foreign troops.
Iraqi interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi demanded on US television yesterday that all Iraqi militias, including those loyal to Sadr, lay down their weapons. The government last month banned militias and reached a deal with nine of them to disband, though not with Sadr's Mehdi Army.
"Dissolving the Mehdi Army is a matter for the religious authority. If it does not make this decision, then the Mehdi Army will be automatically dissolved when occupation forces leave Iraq," Sudani said.
Iraq's interim government, which formally took over sovereignty from the US-led authority last week, has indicated it might offer an amnesty to insurgents who lay down their arms.
"Those talking about amnesty for the resistance should be from the opposing side, not the government speaking in the name of the occupation forces," Sudani said. "I don't know to whom the government has given this amnesty, to those carrying out terrorist activities or to those who are resisting occupation."
Sadr has withheld full support for the interim government because it is unelected. Its leaders were selected by a UN envoy in consultation with Iraqi politicians and US officials.
But the cleric's aides have said Sadr will back its efforts to hold free elections, fight insurgents whose attacks have mostly killed Iraqis and expel foreign forces from Iraq.
"We must differentiate between honourable resistance and operations that target Iraqi people and institutions. The resistance is not fighting the government but the occupation," Sudani said. "With regard to the terrorist operations that we condemn, we have said that we are fully ready to help the police and security forces challenge those who carry out these operations."
Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari said today Sadr and his followers were welcome to join a planned national assembly, due to be set up soon.
But Sadr neither intends to join the consultative body nor nominate himself for public office, although his supporters may participate once democracy has taken hold, Sudani said.