AYATOLLAH Sayed Mohammad Baqr al-Hakim has 50 good reasons to be rid of Saddam Hussein: many of them stare down from the wall upon which their martyrs’ portraits are adorned with a red rose.

Five of his brothers and seven nephews were among 28 family members murdered by the Iraqi despot. Another 22 relatives are missing, almost certainly dead.

“It’s not personal,” shrugs the powerful Shia leader who, with extensive popular support and up to 12,000 fighters ready to roll across the border, is one of the few candidates to head Iraq in a post-Saddam era. “Saddam Hussein represents evil in its complete meaning and I see it as my political and legal responsibility to remove such a nightmare from Iraq.”

As head of the Supreme Council for Islamic Resistance in Iraq, the man who has spent 22 years in exile in Iran is the most prominent Shia figure in the patchwork coalition of Kurds, defectors and opposition groups that the United States wants to use to overthrow the Baath regime. His religious credentials for a leading role are impeccable: he is a direct descendant of the Prophet Muhammad and his late father, Grand Ayatollah Muhsin al-Haqim, was supreme leader of the Shia community until 1970.

Yet he is also a most unlikely ally of the United Statets, becoming eloquently impassioned over the “bad memories” associated with American and British involvement with Iraq, not least Washington’s abandonment of the Shias and Kurds when they rose up against Saddam in 1991 in the expectation of US military backing. Until several months ago he opposed a US attack on Iraq, reflecting the views of an Iranian regime that refers to him as a “guest”. He has changed his stance.

“We are going to use any chance because we think that the matter of changing this regime is the central issue for us. It is considered the most dangerous regime, not just for Iraq but for the region,” he said.

“We have had our contacts with the Americans from a few years ago, but we did not develop them because we felt they were not serious about changing the regime. Now they are more serious.”

He believes that Saddam’s regime will collapse quickly — and wants US forces to leave immediately. “They should stay not a month, not a week, not a day,” he said. “We told the Americans in Washington that we would not agree to a military or even an imposed government.” Promises to this effect had been made to a brother at a meeting of Iraqi opposition forces in Washington in August. The exact nature of these promises are unclear.

One problem for the US is the fragmentation among opposition groups. However, the Ayatollah’s London representative, Hamid al-Bayati, said this week that the groups had resolved “most of their outstanding problems” and would meet in Brussels next month.

The cleric takes pains to assuage any fears that the end of Saddam’s regime could see Iraq break up or a takeover by the 60 per cent Shia majority that has long been subjugated by Baghdad regimes. He is also quick to downplay fears of a Khomeini-style Shia Islamic revolution, something that would appal the West and Iraq’s neighbours. Circumstances in Iran and Iraq were “wholly different”, he said.

“Of course the government will be elected by the people of Iraq,” he says. Elections would be held after about a year, and the various religions would be respected.

Aides say that there are 220,000 Shias ready to return with him. Sceptics say that 20 years of exile have diminished his influence within Iraq, and argue that there would be suspicions over his links with Iran.

The Ayatollah repeats that he is a loyal “soldier” of his country. “We are not with any foreign power,” he says, denying all knowledge of reports that exile forces are being trained by the US. “We are ready to train the Americans,” he replies with laughter.

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