Hassanyari adds that many in Iran’s clerical leadership are hoping that Sadr will eventually serve as a bridge between both country’s leaderships, possibly assuming a position similar to that of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Moqtada al-Sadr comes from a family of Iraqi religious leaders, including his grandfather and his uncle, who were both top ayatollahs. The two were tortured and killed during the lengthy rule of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

Hassanyari notes that there has been talk of Sadr eventually taking the place of Iraq’s venerable Shi’ite cleric Ayatollah Ali Sistani. For that to happen, however, he stresses, Sadr must become a "marjah" or religious authority first. Being a marjah is one step beyond being an ayatollah.