Wednesday, February 14, 2007
Saudi envoy criticises Iraqi politicians
Politics, Security
(RFE/RL) Prince Turki al-Faysal, former Saudi ambassador to Washington and chairman of the King Faysal Center for Islamic Research and Studies, told London-based "Al-Hayat" that sectarian violence in Iraq harms Arab and Muslim states, the daily reported on February 11. "All of us will be affected by the increase in any sectarian escalation in the region," he said. Regarding sectarian violence, al-Faysal said: "What is happening in Iraq today is not a sectarian war, as much as it is a political war that dons the garb of sectarianism. The fact is they are politicians who want to achieve political aims and objectives by using a sect, be it Sunni or Shi'ite, or by using ethnicity, be it Arab or Kurdish, and here lies the danger: that the sect or ethnicity becomes the instrument through which politicians aspire to achieve their goals."
Labels: politics, Saudi Arabia, sectarianism
