BAGHDAD, July 15 (Xinhua) -- Iraq's prominent Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr on Friday called for disbanding militias operating outside the control of the central government and avoiding electing a new prime minister from those in the previous governments.
Following an earlier appeal by al-Sadr, tens of thousands of Iraqis, many of them from other Iraqi provinces, assembled to observe the Friday weekly prayers on Al-Falah Street in eastern Baghdad at noon.
"It is not possible to form a strong Iraqi government with unrestrained weapons and loose militias, so they must dissolve all armed groups," al-Sadr said in a speech read by his assistant Mahmoud al-Jaiyashi.
If the occupation forces (U.S. combat forces) return to Iraq, all armed groups can come back, he warned.
Al-Sadr called on the Shiite political blocs in the parliament not to elect the new prime minister from those who held the position before, referring to the possible nomination of his political foe, former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
"We are at a difficult and rugged crossroads, where there is a demand for forming a government under someone we don't trust and have tried previously," al-Sadr said.
Al-Sadr's speech came more than a month after he ordered his followers in the Sadrist Movement, the biggest winner in the Oct. 10 elections last year with 73 seats, to withdraw from the parliament.
His move has dramatically altered the country's political landscape, casting a shadow over the already stalled government formation process. ■
