Al-Karbala'i calls for Resignation of Provincial Council

AFP/ash-Sharq al-Awsat report that Shaykh Abdul Mahdi al-Karbala'i, the representative of Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani in the holy city of Karbala, called on the members of the provincial council there to submit their resignations because "their appointment was by an American decision, and there had been no consultation with the religious leadership [i.e. Sistani]. He complained that the US official (John Perry?) had just appointed the council, without discussing it with the religious and political leadership.

He said, "I call upon the persons in question to withdraw from the council and I remind them that sooner or later the occupying power will withdraw. And if it does not withdraw, its members will face the people, and you must take a lesson from those who confront it."