Iraq’s major Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish parties have closed ranks to force anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr to disband his Mahdi Army militia or leave politics, lawmakers and officials involved in the effort said Sunday.

Such a bold move risks a violent backlash by al-Sadr’s Shiite militia. But if it succeeds it could cause a major realignment of Iraq’s political landscape.

The first step will be adding language to a draft election bill banning parties that operate militias from fielding candidates in provincial balloting this fall, the officials and lawmakers said. The government intends to send the draft to parliament within days and hopes to win approval within weeks.

“We, the Sadrists, are in a predicament,” lawmaker Hassan al-Rubaie said Sunday. “Even the blocs that had in the past supported us are now against us and we cannot stop them from taking action against us in parliament.”
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In yet a stranger twist of affairs a newfound political accord is bridging political divides, for the moment, coming together as one to weaken a political rival, without even having to utilize their own military support.

As a recent 15 point statement now calls for all militias to disband its subtext is a call for Sadr’s militia to disband.

Now that the Badr Brigade and pro-Maliki militias are understood as the Iraqi army and police, the Kurd’s Peshmerga is understood to be their army and police, and, most very recently, the Sunnis militias are now understood in terms of Awakening councils, as the Sons of Iraq, paid and sanctioned by the US military, the only militia out of step as “official” is Sadr’s Mahdi Army.

As none of the above sects are really interested in Iraqi unity, Sadr now stands to be pushed out of politics or lose his army, or both. Now various Iraqi factions have Sadr in their cross-hairs as Maliki pines to pull the trigger asap: But everyone wants to know if violence erupt again, or worse, spread as a national affliction? And then what comes next, what group will take Sadr’s place next, necessarily, as the outsider, –as all the groups march to their own diverse nationalism and anti-Iraqi sentiments?

This cartoon matches the story.