"Wha's important is that the occupiers leave because they're behind what is happening in Iraq"
Al Sadr calls U.S., Britain and Israel a Triad of Evil
3/11/2006 11:00:00 AM GMT
Iraq’s Shia cleric Muqtada Al Sadr described the United States, Israel and Britain as a "Triad of Evil".
Al Sadr, who was speaking on state-run Iraqiya television last night, said that February 22 barbaric attack which damaged a holy Shia shrine in the central Iraqi city of Samarra was carried "in collusion with the occupiers and the Zionist Entity of Israel," referring for the U.S. and Israel.
The Shia cleric was obviously playing on word the U.S. President George W. Bush previously used in one of his State of the Union addresses, in which he labeled Iraq, Iran and North Korea and "axis of evil."
Commenting on the wave of sectarian attacks targeting members of Iraq’s Sunni community as well as Sunnis' mosques following Samarra blasts, Al Sadr said that they "were a natural reaction" by angry Shia, who were truly hurt because of the attack on their holy shrine. However, he strongly denounced those attacks.
Hundreds of Iraqis died in recent weeks as a result of reprisals following the attack on the Shia holy Shrine, and numerous Muslim leaders in and outside Iraq blamed the occupation for the attack, as it will benefit the invaders by breaking the Iraqi nation, turning it into warring communities fighting against each other instead of fighting the occupation forces.
Moving to the political turmoil that plagued Iraq following the Shia parliamentary bloc's nomination of Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari to form a new government, Al Sadr said "I don't intervene in such small matters."
However, he stated that "The candidate for prime minister must demand the withdrawal of the occupiers, or put a timetable for their pullout. I don't support any person who does not say that".
"What is important is that the occupiers leave because they are behind what is happening in Iraq."
"Putting a timetable on foreign troop withdrawal represents a victory for Iraqis not for 'terrorists'," he said.