Southwest Asia News Digest
Najaf Truce Blows Apart in Bloody Battles
Fierce fighting between Moqtada al Sadr's Shi'ite militia, the al-Mahdi army, and U.S. forces erupted on Aug. 5 in Najaf, Iraq. Separate fighting took place in Baghdad's Shi'ite area, Sadr City. By nightfall Aug. 6, both U.S. forces and those of the U.S. occupation-appointed Prime Minister Allawi claimed that between 200 and 300 Al Mahdi militiamen had been killed. Spokesmen for al Sadr claimed that only 10 Shi'ite gunmen had been killed. The truce that tenuously held since June, when the U.S. lifted its "dead or alive" order to capture al Sadr, has now been breached, with each side accusing the other of violating the its terms.
On Aug. 7, UPI reported that fighting had resumed, after an overnight lull. UPI quotes sources who said the Iraqi troops allied with the U.S. were deployed in large numbers around Najaf to thwart any attempt by Sadr's al-Mahdi Army to seize the Imam Ali Mausoleum, the holiest Shi'ite shrine, and the adjacent cemetery of Wadi al-Salam, the largest burial ground in the world. U.S. forces blocked entries to the holy city to halt any supplies or reinforcements for al-Mahdi Army.
On Aug. 5, in the first day of fighting, a U.S. helicopter was forced down by militia fire, but the wounded crew was reportedly safely evacuated. U.S. jets were reported to have bombed a cemetery were militants were hiding. Sadr's spokesmen also accused the U.S. of damaging the Imam Ali Shrine in Najaf. By nightfall, the fighting was reported to have stopped, though the U.S. was still shelling militant positions.
The fighting was not limited to Najaf, which is located in the Shi'ite south of Iraq. In Baghdad, Health Ministry officials reported five dead and 58 wounded in fighting between Sadr's militia and U.S. forces. Iraqi Interior Minister Falah al-Naqib said (no doubt with the full force of the U.S. military behind him) "We are not going to go into any negotiations.... We have enough power and enough strength to stop and kick these people out from the country." Also in Baghdad, several mortar blasts shook the central city in an area close to the Sheraton and Palestine hotels, where many journalists and foreign contractors are housed. Nobody was reported hurt.
Pope Expresses Solidarity with Chaldean Patriarch in Iraq
Pope John Paul II sent a personal message to the head of the Chaldean Church, Patriarch Emmanuel Delly, expressing his "full solidarity, in this hour of suffering, to the faithful and to the leaders of the churches of different rites that were affected" by the bombings on Aug. 1. The Pope issued an "appeal to all believers in the one God, merciful and forgiving, that all the believers may unite to deplore all forms of violence and cooperate, in order to return to harmony on the tormented soil of Iraq," Al Jazeera reported Aug. 8.
On Sunday, Aug. 1, at six in the evening, just as most services begin, a car bomb exploded outside the Armenian church in Karada, a Baghdad neighborhood that is the heart of the Christian community. Shortly thereafter, explosions rocked the Catholic Syriac Church, also in Karada, and the Chaldean Church of St. Peter and St. Paul emptied from evening mass. Bombers also struck Mar Elya church in north Baghdad. At nearly the same time and 220 miles north, two car bombs exploded in central Mosul outside Mar Polis church.
The Vatican stated that the message from the Pope, who is very close to the Chaldean Church and to all Iraqis, was personally signed by the Pontiff and sent to the Patriarch of the Chaldeans.
For his part, Patriarch Delly called for unity among the religions. "Christians and Muslims must stand together for the good of Iraq," he said, adding that he would issue the same appeal to the interim government. Delly forgave the perpetrators, saying, "The Lord pardons them and illuminates their spirit for the good of the Christians and Muslims in Iraq."
Leading Muslims have also condemned the attacks. In addition to Shi'ite leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani, a spokesman for Moqtada al-Sadr denounced the bombings.
Interim Iraqi National Security Advisor Muwaffaq al-Rubayai, laid blame for the attacks on the notorious al-Zarqawi's group. "We think those who carry out such acts are not only enemies of God and their country, but also enemies of the Iraqi people," he said. "The Iraqi government reassures all sections of the Iraqi people that it will track the criminals wherever they are."
Arafat Celebrates 75th Birthday in Ramallah
Palestinian President Yasser Arafat celebrated his 75th birthday on Aug. 4, and every sign is that he will continue to lead the struggle for a Palestinian state for the foreseeable future, Ma'ariv reported Aug. 4.
The celebrations were very low-key, because of the continuing harsh conditions, in which Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has made Arafat a prisoner in his headquarters in Ramallah, on the West Bank.
Danger of Israeli Attack Against Iran Exposed
Following coverage in the London Sunday Times on Aug. 1, and in IslamOnline Aug. 4, the leading German newspaper, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung of Aug. 6 ran a feature entitled "Israel Fears Iranian Nuclear Weapons." The article says that the Israelis did not need to hear Iranian Foreign Minister Kharrazi's recent announcement, that Iran had resumed centrifuge production, to fear an Iranian bomb. Since the fall of Saddam Hussein, "Israeli secret services as well as the government," have considered Iran as "the most dangerous enemy of the country."
According to the FAZ, the Israelis reckon that Iran will have the bomb by 2007 or 2008. This has led many Knesset (parliament) members to propose thinking about how to "militarily neutralize" the threat. Still, some hope the issue can be dealt with peacefully. Here, the FAZ notes that the Israelis were attentive to the U.S. threats of sanctions, and to U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell's statement that he thought the issue should be taken to the UN Security Council. But, the Israelis are dismissive of the efforts of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Another threat Israel perceives from Iran, is its possession of Shahab missiles, which can reach Israel, as well as southern Europe and Russia. Israel is therefore intensifying its anti-missile program.
Israelis are also playing up as a further threat, Iran's backing for the Palestinian Hizbollah in Lebanon, which gets money and missiles from Tehran. Syria also is said to provide weapons to Hizbollah. And Syria is said to be developing biological and chemical weapons, as well as Scud missiles.
One Israel terrorist expert, Ely Karmon, considers Syria the greater threat: "Syrian help has made Hizbollah a strategic partner and operational arm of the Syrian Army in its confrontation with Israel," he said.
The article concludes with the Shin Bet (Israeli intelligence) head's statement, that Iran and Hizbollah are creating a "fifth column" among Israeli Arabs.
Plan for Muslim Troops to Iraq Going Nowhere
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell raised the issue of a Muslim military force in Iraq, during a recent visit to Saudi Arabia, and said that any Muslim force would be deployed to Iraq "either as part of the coalition or as a separate organization that would be within the framework of the coalition effort." This contingent "would be there perhaps to provide security facilities or provide protection to the United Nations," he said. A senior official travelling with Powell, said the idea was to have such a Muslim force "supplement" the U.S. forces.
The Saudis, in the person of Foreign Minister Prince Saud al Faisal, rejected the idea, reported the Jordan Times of Aug. 3. The Saudis have discussed sending Muslim troops, to replace the occupying U.S., UK, and other troops, and operate under the UN. Prince Saud told press on Aug. 2 that his country wishes "to help find a way to speed up the withdrawal of the coalition forces from Iraq and reinstate Iraqi sovereignty.
Amr Moussa, head of the Arab League, also shot down the proposal, saying, "It is not possible for Arab and Muslim forces to go to Iraq and join the [U.S.-led] forces there with a command other than a UN command."
Retired German Col. Juergen Huebschen, a specialist on Iraq, told EIR that it is a typical error of "Western thinking" to assume that Arab or Muslim troops might be more acceptable to the Iraqis than the US and UK troops. On the contrary, he said, no Arab nation would accept such humiliation.
In a similar vein, the efforts to organize a multinational peacekeeping force under the UN to protect the UN's return to Iraq, have gone nowhere. General Secretary Kofi Annan announced on Aug. 5, that discussions with Pakistan, Ukraine, Nepal, Georgia, and other countries, which were asked to commit 3,000 troops were "protracted [and] inconclusive." Annan said the UN will have to depend for security, for the foreseeable future, on the U.S.-led force in Iraq. Pakistani government spokesman Sheikh Rashid Ahmed told reporters in Lahore, "Other countries are withdrawing troops, so how can we send them?" Other countries that were asked, said it was too dangerous to send troops to Iraq. Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi told reporters, "It is better for us to wait for a while and to see how the situation is."
IAEA Head to Israel: Make Peace, Not Nuclear Weapons
In an interview with Egypt's Al-Ahram newspaper on July 27, Dr. Mohamed ElBaradei, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) responded to criticisms in the Arab world of his recent trip to Israel. Countering charges that he was "soft" on Israel, ElBaradei explained that just as the IAEA cannot inspect nuclear installations in Pakistan or India, because they, like Israel, are not a signators to the Non-Proliferation Treaty, the IAEA had no authority to insist upon seeing Israel's Dimona nuclear reactor, which produces the plutonium for Israel's nuclear weapons.
More importantly, ElBaradei said, this was the first time in 10 years that the subject of regional security and arms control was even discussed with Israel. He reported that he told Prime Minister Sharon that Israel has two options: first, "a nuclear arms race in the region for the coming few decades, including ... the possibility of terrorist groups being able to get hold of a nuclear weapon. Such groups," he stressed, "cannot be deterred by any deterrent, nuclear or other."
The second option is to make the region free of weapons of mass destruction, ElBaradei said, and instead "make peace the basic deterrent in the region, because security is based on peace and cooperation." ElBaradei told Al Ahram that Sharon and Foreign Affairs Minister Silvan Shalom told him that in "the framework of the peace negotiations and the road map, Israel is prepared to discuss the establishment of a nuclear-weapons-free zone." Although the road map is going nowhere, ElBaradei thought it significant that Israel is "prepared to discuss the matter," and that it agreed "to the convening of a forum within the IAEA to discuss the lessons learned from the experience of weapon-free zones" in other regions of the world.
What has to start "today rather than tomorrow," ElBaradei stated, are negotiations, "not between me and Israel, but among Israel, the Arab States, and the Middle Eastern States."
|