Moqtada's travels

While Al-Maliki is in Washington, Moqtada al-Sadr is visiting a "number of Arab countries," according to an Al-Sharq Al-Awsat report. He's in Syria right now; al-Sadr met with Syrian president Bashar al-Assad earlier this week.

It's hard to separate fact from speculation -- the article is heavy on the latter -- but it seems Moqtada is thinking about joining a coalition with the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq. And there are rumors that he's also considering an alliance with Dawa (which already runs candidates with ISCI, under the United Iraqi Alliance coalition).

If those rumors are true, Iraq would have a unified coalition of Shi'a parties running candidates in 2010.