by Jean-Marc Mojon
BAGHDAD, Aug 30 (AFP) - Moqtada Sadr, the firebrand Shiite cleric who spearheaded the largest rebellion in Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein, announced Monday his movement was disarming to join the political mainstream.
"The commander of the Sadr movement, leader Moqtada Sadr, announced today in Najaf the end of all fighting in the whole of Iraq and the integration of his movement in the political process," one of his aides said.
The 31-year-old cleric, for many Iraqis the symbol of resistance to foreign occupation, made the announcement three days after a deal ending the weeks-long confrontation between US troops and his Mehdi Army in the holy city of Najaf.
The man once branded an outlaw by US overseer Paul Bremer and accused of having a hand in the assassination of pro-US cleric Abdul Majid al-Khoei the day after the fall of Baghdad, had previously sworn he would never enter Iraqi politics so long as the country was occupied.
The shock turnaround coincided with a visit by Deputy Prime Minister Barham Saleh to Tehran, where elements of the Islamic regime are accused of offering some level of backing to Sadr.
The bloody standoff around Najaf's Imam Ali mausoleum ended with an agreement negotiated by top Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.
Sistani confirmed his role as a major power broker in the troubled country, while Sadr emerged from the crisis as the man who defended the holiest site in Shiite Islam against the formidable military might of the United States.
When Saddam Hussein was toppled in April 2003, Sadr had little more authority than his status as son of Grand Ayatollah Muhammad Sadiq al-Sadr, who was assassinated in 1999, almost certainly on the deposed dictator's orders.
But as the security situation spiralled out of the coalition's control and the promised reconstruction was delayed, his virulent anti-American sermons boosted his popularity.
A US crackdown on his leading lieutenants and the closure of his newspaper -- Al-Hawza -- sparked an uprising which began on March 28.
The siege of the shrine was the founding myth that definitively enthroned him as a key figure in the fate of Iraq.
According to an opinion poll carried out before the bulk of the uprising, Sadr was already the second most popular character in Iraq.
Monday's announcement of his entry into the political arena comes after the embattled US-backed prime minister, Iyad Allawi, invited him repeatedly to participate in mainstream politics.
Sadr's spokesman did not specify whether he would stand for the elections scheduled for January 2005, saying only that the firebrand cleric's movement would submit a political project to the interim government within two days.
"Leader Moqtada Sadr", as his most faithful followers refer to him, draws his grassroots support from Sadr City, a Baghdad slum formerly called Saddam City and renamed after his father in the aftermath of the US-led invasion.
The Najaf siege left Moqtada's prestige almost on a par with that of Imam Hussein -- Prophet Mohammed's grandson -- within the ranks of his militiamen, many of whom believe the young cleric slipped anonymously into the battlefield to fight the Americans.
Even non-Shiites in Iraq have begun to make comparisons between Sadr, with his wispy beard, black robes and turban, and Hassan Nasrallah the charismatic leader of Hezbollah, the Shiite militant group widely credited in the Arab world with driving Israel out of Lebanon in May 2000.
But it remains to be seen whether a tamed Moqtada will retain the backing of the young and angry rebels who fought for him in recent months.
After a peaceful crowd of Shiite protestors broke the siege of the Najaf shrine, the Mehdi Army refused to hand over its weapons.
Instead, militiamen took them home or hid them in safe houses -- as they did after a truce agreement in June, only for fighting to break out two months later.