Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr predicts ‘Iraqi Spring’ as Sunnis continue to protest.

Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr predicts ‘Iraqi Spring’ as Sunnis continue to protest.(AA).Powerful Iraqi anti-U.S. occupation Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr threw his weight Tuesday behind Sunni demonstrations against Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and predicated an impending “Iraqi spring.”
The hardline cleric said Tuesday in the Shiite holy city of Najaf that the demonstrators have the right to demonstrate as long as they are peaceful.
Protesters have been holding rallies in the western desert province of Anbar and other Sunni strongholds for more than a week. The demonstrations follow the arrest of bodyguards assigned to the Sunni finance minister, Rafia al-Issawi, though they tap into deeper Sunni grievances of perceived discrimination by the government of Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
Al-Sadr grudgingly backed longtime rival al-Maliki following elections in 2010, then last year joined Iraq’s minority Sunni Arabs and Kurds in calling for al-Maliki to resign.
Maliki looked to head off protests in Sunni areas of the country with a prisoner release even as he threatened to use state resources to “intervene” to end the rallies.
Maliki, who is Shiite, ordered the release of more than 700 female detainees, a key demand of demonstrators, the official appointed to negotiate with protesters, told AFP.
“The prime minister will write to the president to issue a special amnesty to release them,” Khaled al-Mullah said.
Mullah said of 920 female prisoners in Iraqi jails, 210 had been accused or convicted of terrorism-related offences and could not be released. But, he said, they would be transferred to prisons in their home provinces.
The remaining detainees, convicted on lower-level charges, would be released, he said. He did not give a timeframe for the process.Hmmmm.....Wouldn't he make a nice Iraqi version of Khomeini?Read the full story here.