Iraqi Al-Mahdi Spokesman Calls for US to Get Out – Russian TV

Washington should withdraw its troops from Iraq “before it is too late”, a spokesman for Iraqi Al-Mahdi Army told Russian NTVMIR in a Special Report interview broadcast on 31 August.

“Abu-Mus’ab al-Zarqawi, who is in charge of the terrorist organization Al-Qa’idah’s Iraqi cell, is unwittingly, as it were, presenting George Bush with a magnificent opportunity of justifying the war in Iraq by the glorious ideas of the struggle against terrorism. If al-Zarqawi were not here, he would have had to be invented. Thanks to him, all Iraqi liberation movements and parties fall under the definition of terrorists. They do not take hostages, they do not cut off heads, nor do they blow up civilians. They are simply against, against those whom they call Iraq’s occupants. According to the latest official data, the American losses stand at 1,860 people, with 63 US servicemen dying in August this year alone. The Iraqi cell of Al-Qa’idah is hardly capable of inflicting such losses. Forces which Iraqis call national-liberation movements are active here. The Al-Mahdi Army is among the most popular. Its leader, [Shi'i clergyman] Muqtada al-Sadr, describes himself as a military opponent and not a terrorist,” the Special Report’s presenter Dmitriy Kalenichenko said by way of introduction.

Abbas al-Rubayi, captioned as spokesman for the Al-Mahdi movement had this to say [vernacular to Russian]: “We are a volunteer militia. The bravery and the courage of our brethren shocked the US command. The US soldiers were lied to when they were told they would be met with flowers here. We dispelled this myth when we drove the occupants out of the holy Al-Najaf. Thanks to our victories, the spirit of the Iraqi people is gathering strength. Many comrades-in- arms joined us and I am now firmly confident of what I say when I say that this is no place for the Yanks to be, they will be killed on every corner in Iraq.”

With archive video clips purporting to show attacks on police stations being shown in the background, Kalenichenko made the point that Iraqis regard their fellow countrymen who work in US sponsored police as traitors.

Abbas al-Rubayi said: “As a human being and a religious figure, I regret the death of American boys in Iraq, dying not for their homeland, but for the sake of the aggressive plans of [George] Bush. The Americans came here as liberators and builders of a new Iraq, but became occupants and plunderers. They have perpetrated the most evil deeds against simple folk and they are now infected with the Iraqi syndrome. I call on the American president to take a courageous decision, as befits the leader of a great power, and to withdraw the troops from Iraq, before it is too late. To the unfortunate mothers of the American soldiers I can say one thing: make haste and save your children.”

Kalenichenko said that Abbas al-Rubayi’s decision to meet Russian journalists was no coincidence: “In September he intends, in the rank of head of a delegation of opposition forces, to go to Moscow for consultations.”

Abbas al-Rubayi said: “Your president’s statement that it is necessary to draw up a timetable for the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq has given us moral support. This is a courageous position. I think that with the assistance of peaceloving forces throughout the world we shall liberate our country from the American yoke. We have allied relations with all Iraq’s patriotic forces. Our main task is to drive the occupants out.”

Kalenichenko said that “the USA is attempting to make use of the Chechen card, although Chechnya is part of Russia, as a pretext to discredit Russia in the Islamic world, although Russia and the Islamic world have always had good and friendly relations” and al- Rubayi took this up: “The position of the US administration against Russia and her people is known to us as a hypocritical policy of double standards. It is pretending to shed crocodile tears over the situation of Muslims in Russia and in Chechnya in particular, but, at the same time, the US soldiers use tanks and aircraft to kill Muslims in Iraq, children, old people, women. They humiliate a holy land by destroying mosques, in a situation in which our country is the cradle of Islam. Russia has never fought against Islam. Russia is respected in the Islamic world.”

Kalenichenko remarked that Russian embassy was one of the few foreign embassies to continue to operate in Iraq. He said Russia’s position on the Iraqi’s question was “invariable” and introduced Ilya Morgunov, captioned as Russian Federation’s charge d’affaires ad interim in Iraq, who said: “Russia is for the necessity of further unification of international efforts to reach the following goals: stabilization of the situation in Iraq, an all-round and all- sided implementation of political process in the country, stopping the violence, fighting terrorism and also for rendering a comprehensive assistance to Iraqis in the speediest possible restoration of their sovereignty and control over their natural resources.”

Kalenichenko said that if in keeping with the new constitution Iraq becomes a federative state, it will lead to a civil war and the country’s disintegration: “For the time being, the fighters are directing their weapons against Americans, but threats to their opponents resound with ever greater clarity. The political struggle is turning into war. Explosions now thunder in front of headquarters of parties. If Iraq falls apart, Kurdistan will be the first to demand independence. According to information from unofficial sources, the Kurds were promised independence in exchange for the deployment of US bases during the war.”"The Shi’i south will secede in the Kurds’ footsteps. The Shi’i and the Kurds possess huge amounts of oil. The Sunnis under this scenario, will be left with the desert and that is why they occupy the most irreconcilable position concerning Iraq’s federative structure,” Kalenichenko said.