Saudi Arabia, Qatar declare war on Iraq: Maliki

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki says Saudi Arabia and Qatar are openly declaring war on Iraq by supporting the militants in western Anbar Province.

Maliki said “they are attacking Iraq, through Syria and in a direct way, and they declared war on Iraq, as they declared it on Syria, and unfortunately it is on a sectarian and political basis.”

Iraqi security forces have been battling the militants from the al-Qaeda linked Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in Anbar’s two main cities of Fallujah and Ramadi since January.

The Iraqi prime minister slammed “the dangerous Saudi stance of supporting terrorism in the world – it supports it in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Egypt and Libya and even in countries outside the Arab world.”

He added that Riyadh and Doha were providing political, financial and media support to militant groups, and said that they are “buying weapons for the benefit of these terrorist organizations.”

The ISIL is among the militant groups that the Syrian army has been fighting since the start of the conflict in Syria in 2011. ISIL militants are responsible for the massacre of civilians and army personal in the war-hit country.