Sadr wants peaceful talks, lawmaker says

BAGHDAD, May 6 (UPI) -- A lawmaker with the political party of Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr said diplomatic means are the way to peaceful reconciliation in Iraq.

Maha al-Dori with the Sadrist Movement said U.S. officials blamed Sadr loyalists for the instability in Basra and Baghdad recently. She rejected the notion in an interview with Al-Alam saying Sadr's Mehdi Army targets only "occupation" forces in self-defense and not Iraqi national forces.

Dori said she was sad to see some Iraqi lawmakers rejected a proposal by Iraqi Parliament Speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani and President Jalal Talabani to resolve the political crisis diplomatically.

She refused, however, to blame the government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki for the issues confronting Baghdad, instead focusing her criticism on the U.S. "occupiers."

Dori repeated the Sadrist line that U.S. forces should withdraw from Iraq in order to "free the country from the occupation reins."