CAIRO,
August 24 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - As delegates of the
U.S.-named Iraqi Governing Council took its quest for international
recognition to the Arab League, Grand Ayatollah Seyed Mohammed Hakim
survived an assassination attempt in the holy Iraqi city of Najaf
Sunday, August 24.
The
head of the Council Ibrahim Jaafari claimed that Arab countries
granted the U.S.-appointed body "clear recognition" by
agreeing to hold talks with it.
"What
does it mean to invite a (Council) delegation to high level
meetings?" said Jaafari, the rotating chairman of the 25-member
body appointed in July by the U.S. occupying authority.
"This
is more than implicit recognition, this means clear recognition,"
he added, speaking to reporters after the four-member Council
delegation met Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher and Arab League
chief Amr Mussa in the Egyptian capital, reported Agence France-Presse
(AFP).
Still
Reluctant
However,
the Egyptian government and Arab League did not share Jafari's
opinion.
Maher
said the formation of the Council last July "was a step in the
right direction" but insisted that an Iraqi government should be
independent and elected in order to be legitimate.
"I
found them (the delegates) keen to preserve Iraq’s independence and
unity and cooperate with Arab countries in order to preserve Iraq's
sovereignty," he was quoted by AFP as saying.
Maher
spoke to the press after the delegation left the ministry, and the
official statement from the MENA news agency continued to refer to the
delegation as "a group of Iraqi figures," ignoring the
Governing Council.
Seeking
Arab League Seat
The
delegation, composed of Jafari, Adnan Pachachi, Ghazi al-Yawar and
Barak Abu Sultan, urged the Arab League to allow the Governing Council
to appoint a representative at the 22-member organization.
"The
seat of Iraq should not be empty," Pachachi told reporters after
talks with Mussa.
He
said Mussa promised to submit the Council's request to the next Arab
Foreign Ministers' meeting, scheduled in Cairo September 9 and 10.
Maher
said on August 11 that the Governing Council was not a "legal
authority" for Iraq, and days earlier Arab Foreign Ministers
meeting in Cairo stopped short of endorsing it.
Egypt
is the sixth leg of an Arab tour that has already taken the delegation
to the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Bahrain, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.
It is expected to visit Jordan and Yemen Monday.
Earlier
this month, Jordanian Foreign Minister Marwan Moasher said the Council
was a "step on the road" to the re-establishment of a
sovereign government.
In
Yemen, where the delegation is to arrive Monday, government spokesman
Abdullah al-Ridha reiterated reservations about the Council's
representation.
"Yemen
was among the first countries to have underlined the need for the
Iraqi people to elect their representatives through democratic
polls," he said.
The
U.N. Security Council
a resolution welcoming the establishment of the Governing Council but
stopped short of formally endorsing it, as initially sought by the
United States.
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"I found them (the delegates) keen to preserve Iraq’s independence and unity,” Maher
|
Rumor
had it that the United States have pressured the Arab League to
recognize the Council, but the body refused to do this on fears of
similarly recognizing the U.S.-led occupation.
Government-owned
Cairo dailies Sunday renewed their criticism of the U.S.-led invasion
and occupation of Iraq.
"To
call things by their true names, what is happening in Iraq is the
assassination of a country's freedom and sovereignty to satisfy
colonialist-Zionist ambitions," Al-Akhbar newspaper said.
The
daily added in its main editorial that the bombing of the U.N.
headquarters in Baghdad Tuesday, August 12, should be blamed on
"the submission" of U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan to the
United States.
"The
motive of the group who carried out the crime of blowing up the UN
building ... was the submission of the international organization to
US hegemony," it wrote.
Shiite
Leader Survives Assassination
In
the war-ravaged Arab country, an explosion near the main mosque in the
holy Shiite Muslim city of Najaf in central Iraq killed two people,
U.S. military officials said.
"There
was an explosion 800 meters (yards) south of the Imam al-Ali mosque in
Najaf at 0310 (1110 GMT) this afternoon. Two Iraqis were killed and
one was wounded," a U.S. military spokesman told the BBC
NewsOnline.
The
bomb was intended to kill a leading Shiite leader Mohammed Sayyed
al-Hakim who suffered scratches on his neck, Iraqi Shiite sources were
quoted as saying.
The
Supreme Assembly for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SAIRI) said the
grand ayatollah was slightly wounded, but that two of his bodyguards
and a driver were killed.
Another
nine people were wounded in the attack, it said.
Iraqi
newspapers reported last week that al-Hakim had received threats
against his life. He had also one of three top Shiite leaders that
were threatened with death by a rival Shiite shortly after Saddam
Hussein was toppled on April 9.
“Obviously
terrorist groups who belong to the former regime are behind this
incident,” Abdel-Aziz al-Hakim, a member of Iraq’s U.S.-picked
Governing Council, was quoted as saying.
The
SAIR had rejected the U.S. presence in Iraq as an
"occupation" but said "resistance will not be by
military resistance."
SAIRI's
armed wing, the Badr Brigade "has no intention nor determination
to confront coalition forces or other forces linked to it," Hakim
said on April 23.
The
U.S. occupation forces blame loyalists to Saddam for the almost daily
attacks against its forces, mostly in the so-called Sunni Triangle
formed by Baghdad, Tikrit and Ramadi.
But
a number of self-claimed groups confirming no links with the former
leader claimed responsibility for the attacks, and vowed to keep
resistance until an end to occupation and the establishment of a
national representative government at the helm of the war-torn
country.
On
August 15, thousands of Iraqi Shiite Muslims
gathered
in a poor suburb of the capital for a protest against the U.S.
occupation forces, after a Shiite boy was killed by the U.S. gunfire
in a demonstration a few days earlier.
