Muqtada al-Sadr, the cleric that leads the Sadr Movement, expressed support for Assad, saying that "there is a big difference between what is happening in Syria and the great revolutions in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Bahrain and Yemen, one of the reasons behind this difference is that Bashar al-Assad is against the U.S. and Israeli presence and his attitudes are clear, not like those who collapsed before him, or will collapse." He also warned that the demonstrations could bring Syria into "an abyss of terrorism and fragmentation in the event of a vacuum in power. However, on 27 April 2013, Al-Maliki expressed concern, stating that "a plague of sectarianism" was sweeping Iraq as it had in Syria. Following the Khan Shaykhun chemical attack on 4 April 2017, Sadr called for Assad to step down.