According to Khabar Online correspondent quoting Free Iraq website, the head of Sadrist movement will choose another country to reside if the Islamic Republic pressures him more on the issue.
Followers of al-Sadr have selected Ibrahim al-Jaafari as their favored candidate to become the country's next prime minister.
Sadrist Movement is a prominent political faction of Iraq's national coalition. Although its alliance with al-Maliki and State of Law is unlikely, if materialized, it will be so welcomed by Iran which regards the issue as a totally Shia coalition.
But the movement and al-Sadr firmly oppose al-Maliki to serve for another term. In their negotiations with State of Law Sadrists are emphasizing on the withdrawal of the prime minister from candidacy for the position.
As Al Jazeera reports, the Sadrists were crucial supporters when al-Maliki formed his government in 2006.
But two years later, he turned the security forces on the Mahdi Army, the group's armed wing, jailing thousands of al-Sadr supporters in a campaign to destroy militias in the southern city of Basra and the Baghdad suburb of Sadr City.
In his comments, the anti-American cleric has said that he recently turned down an offer by al-Maliki's camp to release his followers currently in government detention, in exchange for accepting an alliance with State of Law.
In the interview, al-Sadr also sharply criticised al-Maliki, described his government as a failure and called him a liar.
"The new Iraqi government should be based on partnership, not on partisan, ethnic or sectarian bases," al-Sadr said.
However State of Law stresses on the candidacy of al-Maliki and is not to compromise on the issue.
After the fall of the dictator, Saddam Hussein, al-Sadr succeeded in organizing a fresh young militia group called the Mahdi Army which stubbornly fought with the invading Western nations in Iraq.
Through constructing barricades in the shrine of Imam Ali (S) and Kufa Mosque, the group inscribed a memory in the mind of people living in the holy city of Najaf.
The movement is widely supported, mostly among the Shi'ite poor in the oil-producing south and deprived urban areas such as Baghdad's Sadr City slum.
Living some years in hideout, he finally re-emerged at a news conference in Tehran on Saturday, March 6. Speaking on the parliamentary election in Iraq, he hoped that any winner faction could serve Iraqi people.
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