Qatar, Turkey, S. Arabia Attempting to Separate al-Anbar Province from Iraq

Some regional states, mainly Qatar, Turkey and Saudi Arabia, are striving to separate the Western province of al-Anbar from Iraq through escalating tensions and terrorist operations in the restive region, a senior London-based Iraqi expert warned on Monday.

“Saudi Arabia and Qatar were involved in the recent bombings and Turkey and the UAE have also collaborated (with the terrorists) in these blasts,” Head of the Center for the Southern Iraq Studies and Professor of London University Ali Ramazan al-Ousi told FNA on Monday.

He said the backup extended to the terrorist in Iraq by the aforesaid countries is aimed at hampering the political process in Iraq which is moving towards democracy, since these states are afraid that democracy-seeking moves might spread to their own countries.

“They are attempting to hamper the country’s political trend and its move towards democracy and prevent the spread of democracy-seeking streams to their territories through financial and arms support for the terrorist groups in Iraq,” he said.

Al-Ousi warned that these countries want to escalate tensions in different parts of Iraq, specially the al-Anbar province, in a bid to exert increasing political and security pressures on the Baghdad government and eventually cut off the province from Iraq and annex it to Jordan in line with the plots which have been hatched by the US and Israel against the region since long time ago.

In relevant remarks earlier this month, a senior Iraqi legislator also blasted Turkey and Qatar for supporting terrorist groups in Iraq, and said they are responsible for the recent unrests in the country.

“Certain states support those accused of terrorism; for example, Turkey seeks to ignite sectarian seduction by provoking the Sunnis,” Qassem al-A’raji told FNA.

“Qatar also acts on the basis of Israeli and US plots in this way that it attempts to weaken all countries which can be a threat to Israel in future,” he added.

Al-A’raji said that Qatar is striving to support all those approaches which have racist and sectarian tendencies to destabilize and weaken certain countries like Iraq.

Also in February, a senior advisor to Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki rapped the Qatari government for meddling in Iraq’s internal affairs, cautioning that Doha seeks to spark sectarian strife to damage the political process in his country.

“Qatar’s interferences are aimed at bringing Iraq’s political trend to an end and sparking sectarian strife,” Maliki’s Advisor in National Reconciliation Affairs Amer al-Khazayee told FNA at the time.

Noting that foreign interference in Iraq is obvious to everyone nowadays, he said, “Some of these governments even have no justification for their interference in Iraq’s affairs as they have no common interests with Iraq in economic, social and geographical areas.”

Iraq said in January that several regional states, including Qatar, have paid $100 to each participant in protest rallies in al-Anbar province in support of Iraqi Finance Minister Rafia al-Issawi, whose bodyguards have been arrested on terrorism charges.

Iraq’s al-Nakhil news agency quoted a security official as saying that after the arrest of Issawi’s bodyguards, several groups affiliated to the regional states, specially Qatar, paid huge sums to their sympathizers in Anbar, Salaheddin and Nineveh provinces to stage rallies against the Iraqi government.

Ouraq al-Khalij newspaper also informed that Doha is staunchly supporting Issawi for taking the leadership of Sunni protestors in Iraq.

The paper said Qatari officials had contacted a large number of their agents and hirelings in Iraq in recent days to coordinate the protests, adding that even the mottoes chanted against al-Maliki government have been dictated by Doha.