Shafaq News/ The powerful Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr on Thursday said that calls for "Shiite unity" should not impede the battle against corruption and dependence to external forces, commending al-Hashd al-Shaabi's (Popular Mobilization Forces-PMF) non-alignment amid the heavy wrangling between the camps of "the Sadrists" and the "Coordination Framework".

In a tweet he shared earlier today, al-Sadr said that a true Shiite unity entails "patriotism, reforms, abandoning corruption, dependence, monopoly, injustice, and violence."

"Iraq is the metropolis of Shiism in the world. It should be followed, rather than following others," he added.

Al-Sadr distinguished between "the camp of unguided unity" and "the camp of unity based on rational, religious, social, patriotic, and moral criteria."

"We are with the second camp, indeed, and we would not deviate. This is what the Marja'iah, the people, and every wise person seeks," he added.

"Our brothers in al-Hashd al-Shaabi are not involved with any of the two camps," al-Sadr said in reference to the Coordination Framework and the Sadrist movement, "I am sure they approve my quest for a unity within the religious, humane, and intellectual framework."

"They, Mujahids, are very close to our thoughts and opinions, al-Sadr family. In fact, the majority of them follow the two martyrs in their religious practice," he concluded.