Ayatollah Shahroudi calls for Iraqi nations' vigilance against enemy's "disintegration plots"

Rasa - Vice-Chairman of Iran's Assembly of Experts - a clerical vetting body tasked with selecting the country's Supreme Leader and monitoring his performance - urged the Iraqi nation to keep a watchful eye on the enemies plots to disintegrate Iraq.

News ID: 2462

Date: 06 May 2015 - 13:47

RNA - "I desire unity of the Iraqi nation against the US meddling in Iraq; all Iraqi tribes and religions should set aside their differences and think of national interests," Ayatollah Seyed Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi, a former Judiciary chief, said in a meeting with Iraqi Culture Minister Firyad Rawanduzi in Tehran on Tuesday.

The vice-chairman of Iran's Experts Assembly pointed to the West's cultural onslaught, and underlined the need for supporting modern methods of conveying the message and thinking of Islam as the only way to confront the spread and growth of deviation, fabrications and corruptions.

The remarks came as senior parliamentary officials in Baghdad disclosed earlier on Tuesday that Germany has sent 70 tons of weapons to the Iraqi Kurds in the city of Erbil without any coordination with the country's central government in Baghdad, a move seen as part of the western states' plan for disintegrating Iraq through undermining Baghdad's authority.

"Germany has sent 70 tons of weapons to Iraq's Kurdistan region without prior information of the Iraqi government," Al-Sumeriya news website quoted Iraqi MP Haytham al-Jabouri as saying.

The move by the German government takes place at a time when the Iraqi Parliament voiced strong opposition to a bill proposed by the US Congress that allows the Kurdish forces and the Sunni tribesmen to be armed directly bypassing Iraq's central government.

Al-Jabouri noted that the arms cargo arrived in Iraqi Kurdistan region on Monday, and said, "The German government's move has been made in violation of the Iraqi parliament's rejection of any foreign interference in the country's internal affairs or interaction with Iraqi political groups without prior coordination with the Federal government."

On Sunday, the Iraqi Parliament rejected the Congress proposal of arming the Kurdish forces and the Sunni tribesmen, and reiterated its support for a unified Iraq.

Last week, Iraqi Interior Minister Mohammed Salem al-Ghabban strongly blasted the Congress bill as an initial step to stir sectarian war in the country.

Ghabban made the remarks in a meeting with the US ambassador to Iraq in Baghdad on Saturday.

The Iraqi government believes that this measure is unacceptable and a mistake, he said.

Ghabban underlined that the GOP proposal will pave the ground for a religious and civil war in Iraq.

On Wednesday, Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi said his government strongly opposed a bill proposed by the US Congress that mandates arming the Iraqi Kurds directly, saying the bill would sow division.

The Iraqi government strongly opposes the bill, Haidar al-Abadi said in a press release.

In March 2015, the US Congress introduced legislation that would allocate military articles directly to the Kurdish Peshmerga fighters.

"The bill proposed by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee is opposed (by the Iraqi government), as it leads to further divisions in the region," al-Abadi said.

"We call on the US Congress not to go through with the bill to preserve strategic relations between the two countries (the United States and Iraq) in fighting the Islamic State (of Iraq and the Levant) terrorist organization and reinforcing cooperation between them," al-Abadi added.

The Iraqi Prime Minister added that countries working alongside Baghdad in combatting the ISIL have respected Iraq’s sovereignty, and stressed that nobody will receive weapons without the consent of the central government.

"There is no double dealing with the outside parties… We stress that arming any group will not occur unless via the Iraqi government, in accordance with its military plans," al-Abadi added.

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