Muslim Sunnis accuse Iran of meddling in Iraqi affairs, warn government

 

By Mustafa Amara in Cairo

 

Azzaman, May 29, 2005

 

Muslims Sunnis, believed to make up the bulk of the current anti-U.S. insurgency in Iraq, say Iran is meddling in Iraqi affairs and seems to be happy with the status quo.

 

“Neighboring countries interfere in Iraq affairs but Iran comes at the forefront of these countries and had a role to play in the elections and I believe it is satisfied with the result,” said Bashar al-Faidhi, spokesman for the Muslim Scholars Commission.

 

The commission, which groups senior Muslim Sunni clerics in Iraq, is widely known to be the mouthpiece of Iraqi Sunnis most of whom boycotted the January elections.

 

Insurgency is most active in Sunni-dominated areas of the country known as the Sunni Triangle.

 

Faidhi was in Cairo for talks with the Egyptian government and the Arab League.

 

He said none the Sunni members of the current government “represents the Sunnis in Iraq.”

 

“These (Sunni) personalities occupying ministerial posts on behalf of Sunnis were not elected. They are simply filling in the vacuum left due to the boycott of the elections,” Faidhi said.

 

Faidhi said there was little the current government could offer.

 

“The government is risking its political future because it can offer Iraqis nothing … particularly in the areas of security economy and the drafting of constitution,” he said.

 

Faidhi warned the Sunnis will boycott the forthcoming elections “if conditions remained the same.”

 

“We shall not take part in any political process under the shadow of occupation,” he said.

 

He said the Sunnis may change their mind if there is a schedule for the withdrawal of foreign troops under U.N. supervision.

 

Faidhi blamed intelligence “belonging to Arab and non-Arab states” unhappy with the presence of U.S. troops in the country for the car bombing campaign that hit Iraq recently.

 

“The resistance began in Falluja and spread to cover other parts,” Faidhi said.

 

He said Baathists made up only 20% of the insurgency with the nationalists and Islamists comprising the rest.

 

Asked whether Muslim Shiites were taking part in the insurgency, Faidhi said, “The Shiites have their special conditions among them is the fact that they (still) do not have a fatwa (religious ruling) in this regard.”

 

He said conditions under former leader Saddam Hussein were better as Iraqis then felt “more secure and the country had its identity and independence.”

 

Faidhi said the commission “has common understanding” with at least on Shiite group belonging to militant cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

 

“The Americans targeted the group and it weakened as a result, but most likely it has regained its strength.

 

“Our common ground is not to deal with American troops,” he said.