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Iraq's firebrand Shiite cleric presents his political successor

Muqtada al-Sadr has appointed his nephew to oversee all the political activities of the Sadrist movement, while he turns his attention entirely to its religious aspects.
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BAGHDAD, Iraq — In a meeting with the ministers of defense and interior in Muqtada al-Sadr's Najaf office May 3, Sadr's nephew Ahmed al-Sadr stood directly behind his uncle in what was taken as the younger Sadr's introduction as the second-highest authority of the Sadrist movement after Muqtada al-Sadr himself.

A few weeks ago, Ahmed al-Sadr appeared on the Iraqi scene as the head of the Sadrist movement's reform committee, introducing its political agendas and plans for the post-Islamic State period. The Sadrist movement presented its strategies at the end of April to Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, President Fuad Masum, parliament Speaker Salim al-Jabouri, Kurdistan Regional Government President Massoud Barzani and former President Jalal Talabani.

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