Terror Network Vows End to "American Era" in Middle East
Hezbollah Threatens U.S. in Iraq
April 25, 2003
By Toby Westerman
Copyright 2003 International News Analysis Today
www.inatoday.com
The head of the Hezbollah terror network has declared that the organization is beginning "resistance to American occupation" of Iraq, and is ready to "fight for the defense of Syria" in the event of a United States attack, according to the right-of-center French news daily Le Figaro.
Sheik Hassan Nasrallah said that Hezbollah will support the Shiites of Iraq in resisting "the injustice, the occupation, and the humiliation" of American administration of Iraq. Nasrallah declared his hostility to any U.S. plan for the reconstruction of Iraq, condemning "American occupation" or the rule of "[U.S.] collaborators."
Nasrallah views the U.S. and Israel together as "two facets of the same enemy," and makes the assertion that "America wishes to sow discord" among Kurdish, Shiite, and Sunni Muslims.
Nasrallah's identification of the U.S. as a source of "discord" is remarkable, since rivalry among Kurds, Shiites, and Sunnis predates any U.S. involvement in the Middle East.
Ethnic Kurds have sought their own state since at least the collapse of the Ottoman Empire following WWI. The often-bitter conflict between Shiite and Sunni Muslims is almost as old as Islam itself, originating over the dispute among the immediate successors to Mohammed, the founder of the Muslim religion.
In addition to Hezbollah's pledge of opposition, a powerful Iraqi clan is determined to undermine the American administration of Iraq, according to Le Figaro.
Members of the al-Hakim family are in the forefront of Iraqi domestic opposition to the efforts of retired U.S. General Jay Garner to reconstruct Iraq using a Western, democratic model. The al-Hakim group also opposed the secular rule of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.
Shiite religious leader Abdul Asis al-Hakim, referring to Jay Garner's mission to rebuild Iraq, recently declared that, "we refuse all solutions imposed by anyone," and denounced the U.S. as, "the enemy who attempts to strike at Islam."
Abdul al-Hakim urged his followers to continue the struggle for an Islamic government which began with a guerrilla war against Saddam Hussein's regime. "The presence of coalition forces in Iraq does not give anyone an excuse to rest," declared al-Hakim.
While recognized as a powerful Shiite leader in his own right, Abdul al-Hakim is preparing the way for the return from Iran of his elder brother, Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim, leader of the Iranian-supported Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) and its substantial guerrilla forces.
The al-Hakim family name is highly regarded in Iraq. Abdul and Baqir's deceased father, Muhsin al-Hakim, was the former head of al-Hawza Islamic University, and remains one of the most respected authorities of the modern Shiite Muslim era.
The al-Hakim family has already paid dearly for its leadership within Iraq in the struggle against the Saddam Hussein regime. Twenty-one members of the al-Hakim family were executed, and Baqir was exiled under Saddam Hussein.
Abdul al-Hakim promises that his brother will return from Iran "in a few days," and he urges "a political, a religious fight" against the American administration of Iraq, Le Figaro reported.
Copyright 2003
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