'Just World News' with Helena Cobban: Moqtada (and Petraeus) repositioning? : "This AP report meanwhile tells us that, back in Najaf today, Obeidi criticized the Sadrists' Shiite rival, IISC head Abdel-Aziz Hakim, for his current visit to the US, calling it an 'act of surrender.' It is hard to gauge and assess these developments from a distance-- except to note that the Sadrists seem to be treading a fine line between cooperating, de-facto and in some delimited spheres, with the Americans and not cooperating with them in others. It is also, certainly, significant that Obeidi-- whom we have no reason to doubt at this point is accurately representing Moqtada's views-- is trying to position the group as a firmly Arab Iraqi movement, in contrast to the Hakim/IISC (formerly known as SCIRI) crowd who have historically had much closer ties to Iran."