Cleric in Iran issues fatwa against US-Iraqi pact

By ALI AKBAR DAREINI

An influential Iraqi cleric living in Iran on Wednesday issued a fatwa condemning a U.S.-Iraqi security pact that would keep American troops in Iraq for three more years and warned Iraqi leaders not to back the deal.

The Iranian-born Ayatollah Kazim al-Hosseini al-Haeri called the proposed agreement "haram" _ which in Arabic means forbidden by Islam _ and said that approving the deal would be "a sin God won't forgive."

Al-Haeri, based in the Iranian holy city of Qom, has Iraqi nationality and is believed to be a mentor of anti-U.S. Iraqi Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, whose followers oppose the deal. The fatwa, or religious decree, was posted on al-Haeri's Web site. ...