Sunday, November 12, 2006
Baath resistence leader denies laying down arms
Politics
Al-Quds al-Arabi publishes a summary of a statement by Baath resistance leader Izzat Ibrahim al-Duri denouncing the recent AP-originated story about laying down their arms, and attributing it to the occuption's disinformation campaign. Al-Duri writes: "Let the dogs of Rome (meaning the empire), and before them the Safavid dogs of Persia know, crouched in their Green Zone fortress, that the coming days will be darker for them than a moonless night..." which is his way of saying they haven't laid down their arms. Moreover, Al-Duri goes out of his way to deny that there are any contacts at all between the Baath resistance and the Americans, in Amman or anywhere else. And he says there won't be until the conditions that were originally laid down have been met (timetable for withdrawal, restoration of the Baath). Which suggests that at least from the Baath point of view, any contacts there may have been in the past have not led to any continuing contacts.
Also, al-Duri calls on supporters for a high degree of cooperation between the Baath resistance and other armed anti-occupation groups. He called on "members of the [Baath] party to participate in facilitating the entry of Arab and Islamic mujadideen, in order that they can join the ranks of the fighters against the occupation, and so that the land of the Rafideen will become an open front for retaliation against the American and British occupation, and those who cooperate with them."
In another report on the same page, Al-Quds cites remarks by Sheikh Ali al-Abeidi, head of the Abeid tribe in central Iraq, who said: "The leaders of the Abeid tribe understand that the American occupation and the Maliki government have ignored their demands" in connection with reconciliation, presumably made in the recent talks in Amman. And he added that "the death-sentence for Saddam was imposed by order of Bush." In a similar vein, Sheikh Hamid al-Ajili, speaking for a number of tribes around Baiji, Tikrit, Samara and Balad, north of Baghdad, said his group had a quick meeting to discuss ending all discussions with this sectarian government, for which, they are convinced, the Saddam sentencing will prove to have been the "beginning of the end" for it (the government).
