NAJAF, Iraq — An anti-American cleric whose militia was once the nemesis of U.S. troops in Iraq said Saturday that his followers were still resisting the U.S. enemy with all means. But Muqtada al-Sadr, now a formidable force in Iraqi politics and not just a militia leader, tempered his fiery words by saying the new Iraqi government should be given a chance to get American forces out of the country in a “suitable” way.

In his first speech since returning from almost four years of self-imposed exile in Iran, the 37-year-old cleric whose Shiite militias once battled U.S. troops and terrorized Iraqi Sunnis stopped short of explicitly urging violence against Americans. But he left open the possibility that some 50,000 U.S. troops in Iraq could be targeted before they are set to leave at the end of this year.

“Let the whole world hear that we reject America. No, no to the occupier,” al-Sadr said during his 35-minute speech in Najaf. “We don’t kill Iraqis — our hands do not kill Iraqis. But we target only the occupier with all the means of resistance,” he added.

“We are still resisters and we are still resisting the occupier militarily and culturally and by all the means of resistance.”

Al-Sadr has long branded the U.S. military as occupiers in Iraq, and Washington considers him a security threat. Yet after winning 40 seats in March parliamentary elections — and taking eight top leadership posts in the new government — al-Sadr’s political muscle makes him a force that cannot be ignored.

Addressing an adoring and frenzied crowd of thousands, al-Sadr called the U.S., Israel and Britain “our common enemies.”

“Maybe during the past few days and months, we forgot the resistance and the expel of the occupier as we were busy with politics,” al-Sadr said. “Our aim is to expel the occupier with any means. The resistance does not mean that everyone can carry a weapon. The weapon is only for the people of the weapons” — fighters.

U.S. Embassy spokesman David J. Ranz brushed off al-Sadr’s remarks. “We listened to the speech, but heard nothing new,” Ranz said.

A security agreement between Washington and Baghdad requires all U.S. forces to be out of Iraq by the end of the year. Although both al-Maliki and the Obama administration have maintained the roughly 50,000 U.S. troops will leave by then, officials in both nations have acknowledged that Iraq is not yet ready to protect its borders from possible invasion.