Islamic Republic of Iraq?

"It is final and official, grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani has endorsed the United Iraqi Alliance, those who want to turn Iraq into something not unlike Sistani's country of birth, Iran.


Top cleric backs Iraqi candidates with religious intent
By Liz Sly
Chicago Tribune

BAGHDAD, Iraq — The revered Shiite religious leader Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani weighed into Iraq's election campaign Saturday with an instruction to his followers on how to vote that amounted to an endorsement of the ruling pro-Iranian Shiite coalition.

In what his aides described as an oral statement issued through his Office of Fatwa, or religious instruction, in the holy city of Najaf, al-Sistani said Shiites are obligated to vote in the Dec. 15 election. He also specified that they should favor lists of candidates who are religiously inclined and that they should not vote for "weak" ones."
The Iraqi Vote