Qatar, Turkey ignite sectarian conflict in Iraq

Iraq’s sectarian conflict has festered over foreign and regional parties that does not represent the demands of the Iraqi people, a political activist tells Press TV.

This comes as the fugitive deputy of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein has called for more anti-government protests against the country’s prime minister, while the influential Iraqi Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr has called for unity among all people and an end to divisions among religious sects and ethnicities in the Arab country.

Press TV has conducted an interview with Sa’ad al-Motallebi, with the State of Law Coalition, from Baghdad, to further discuss the issue. Al-Motallebi is joined by Basim Abu-Tabikh, an Iraqi political analyst from Beirut, and Dahlia Wasfi, an Iraqi political activist from Wilmington. The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: Do you think that the complaints of the demonstrators are legitimate? Let’s start from there.

Al-Motallebi: [In the Name of God – Most Beneficent, Most Merciful] Naturally when there is public discontent or there is a political crisis looming, the public are the first to suffer. So it would be understandable that there are some certain issues that all citizens of Iraq are facing on similar circumstances.

People in Basra, Amarah, Baghdad, north, south – there is a lack of services. There is a lack of employment. There are certain issues. There are slow economic developments. This will affect, naturally, the citizens of Iraq.

From that point of view, yes, there are certain demands by the demonstrators that one would consider a common factor and a legitimate point to demonstrate about.

Press TV: Is that part of the problem, as Ms. Wasfi has just said? Are the Iraqis upset because they think there is an excessive amount of Iranian influence?

Al-Motallebi: No, that is completely wrong. Unfortunately, what’s happening in Iraq is there’s a sectarian attack headed by Turkey and Qatar. The Islamic Brotherhood in the region is taking over.

If people are not aware, Egypt has become a state of Islamic Brotherhood. The Islamic Brotherhood in Syria is very active. In Jordan, it’s very active. There was a cell discovered in the United Arab Emirates from the Islamic Brotherhood.

Here in Iraq, the Islamic Brotherhood are working on creating an emirate or a safe haven in the Western side of Iraq on a very, very sectarian basis.

The idea is that the present sectarian political groups, i.e. the Islamic Party which is a branch of the Islamic Brotherhood and a great part of al-Iraqiya, which is another Sunni political block, they openly say that Shias are not allowed to serve in Iraq, [that] this government, Mr. Maleki, should surrender power and should scrap the constitution, he should resign from office and install a temporary government, a transitional government that would write a new constitution to give back the power to the original rulers of Iraq.

Now, I don’t know what that means. I don’t know which original rulers they’re talking about, but unfortunately there is an international interference. Worse than that, there are Iraqi politicians who work on behalf of those regional powers, one would say.

The other issue, we’re talking about Iran, I don’t know what kind of Iranian influence when the relationship between Iraq and Iran, I don’t see it as great.

Actually, there are a number of issues we differ about. Iran supports the regime of Syria. We support the people of Syria. There are certain regional issues that we do not see eye to eye with Iran.

Okay, Iran is a great country; it’s a neighboring country to Iraq. We must respect our neighbors in the region, but that doesn’t mean there is an Iranian influence within Iraqi politics.

Press TV: First of all, has there been an order sent out to shoot protesters?

Al-Motallebi: I don’t know where your guest is receiving this information from? First of all, the elections of 2010, which the present government is serving, were done by a completely free basis. There were no Americans. There was no international supervision.

The United Nations assisted us in organizing the elections. They helped a little bit; they helped al-Iraqiya to cheat on some of the votes.

The Dawa Party was formed in Najaf in 1957 and was not formed in Iran, just for your information. Dawa Islamic Party is one of the oldest political parties in Iraq and was formed by the great martyr, the late Ayatollah Mohammad Baqir al-Sadr.

As for shooting, I had a meeting today with Mr. Maleki. I just came from the meeting right now, and he said that I gave strict orders to the army not to shoot at the demonstrations even if they were shot at. He said that I ordered the army extreme self-control and did not allow even in self-defense the army to shoot back.

So, the information, unfortunately, the young lady just said was rather incorrect and I wish she would get correct information when speaking on live television to the world.

Press TV: Mr. Al-Motallebi, let me expand on something else that Dr. Wasfi had mentioned. Again, she said the people on the ground feel that, again, there’s excessive Iranian influence. Let’s talk about the people on the ground and look at their main demands. Do you think that the majority Iraqis in these various cities that we have seen these demonstrations actually feel that way?

I want to look at the possibility of other type of influence because we have reports of various types of influence, for example we’ve seen the Turkish government recently pointing to sectarianism in Iraq even before any of this took place. We have seen, of course, Saudi Arabia once again making various comments, and we have seen this latest situation coming out of Al Arabia; your perspective on all of that, sir.

Al-Motallebi: At the beginning of the program, I was trying to get to that. I said there were certain demands by the demonstrators which are in line with the natural demands of all Iraqi citizens.

Then, unfortunately, the demonstrations were hijacked by political parties, i.e. parts of al-Iraqiya and the Islamic Party, the Islamic Brotherhood. They moved the demonstrations on a very critical line and a very dangerous line.

They moved onto blaming the government on legislations that were created by the parliament and not the government. The government has no right to legislate any laws. The government is the executive body.

But the legislative body, which is the parliament, legislated certain laws, and now they want to either delete these laws or amend them. They’re putting the blame on the prime minister.

Unfortunately, the demonstrations in Iraq took a very, very sectarian view, a very sectarian line. It’s demonstrations that are talking about marginalization.

I don’t know what kind of marginalization they’re talking about: the president is Sunni; the deputy is Sunni; the parliament is Sunni; the deputy prime minister is Sunni; the deputy speaker to the parliament is Sunni; 16 ministers out of the other ministers are Sunni. The government is formed on these lines. 49 percent are Sunni and 51 percent are Shia.

Talking about marginalization or other kind of demands that do not rise to the actual demands of the people have met or moved into clear political demands by political parties taking the form of public demonstrations.