BBC Monitoring

Text of report by Quds Press web news agency

["Al-Sadr Office Denies its Leader Granted Interview to British Paper" - Quds Press]

Baghdad, 21 Aug (Quds Press) - The Al-Sadr Office has denied that Muqtada al-Sadr granted an interview to the British daily The Independent. Ahmad al-Shaybani, spokesman for the Al-Sadr Office in Al-Najaf, said that he [Al-Sadr] did not grant the British paper any interviews and that the published interview is "fabricated and untrue, and his eminence did not grant this newspaper an interview like it claims."

In statements published in Baghdad today, Al-Shaybani said that "we will sue any newspaper, satellite channel, or internet site that attributes fabricated reports or statements to the office of the martyr sayyid or his eminence Muqtada al-Sadr."

On Monday [ 20 Aug], The Independent published a report citing Al-Sadr as saying that he would assist UN forces if they come to help the Iraqi people and that he would ask his followers to support the United Nat! ions so long as it helps rebuild Iraq.

Source: Quds Press news agency, London, in Arabic 21 Aug 07