"Iraqi slurs Saudi official: 'Bedouin riding a camel'"
yared...@yahoo.com
Published October 3, 2005
>From combined dispatches
AMMAN, Jordan -- Iraq's interior minister lashed out yesterday at a
Saudi minister who voiced worries about growing Iranian influence and
Shi'ite power, saying Iraq would not be lectured by "some Bedouin
riding a camel."
Ethnic tensions within Iraq's governing coalition also heightened,
with the nation's Kurdish president called on the Shi'ite prime
minister to step down.
Prince Saud al-Faisal, foreign minister of Sunni Muslim Saudi
Arabia, had expressed concern about growing Shi'ite influence in Iraq
during a visit to Washington last month.
Iraqi Interior Minister Bayan Jabr, a member of the Shi'ite
Islamist Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq, fired back
during a press conference in Amman yesterday, saying, "We will not
allow anyone to interfere in our internal issues, regardless of their
political status. ...
"This Iraq is the cradle of civilization that taught humanity
reading and writing, and some Bedouin riding a camel wants to teach us.
This talk is totally rejected," he said.
He also took a swipe at the Saudi monarchy.
"There are regimes that are dictatorships. They have one God. He is
the king, he is God of heaven and earth, and he rules as he likes," Mr.
Jabr said.
"A whole country is named after a family. If we open these topics
without inhibitions, it is neither to our benefit, nor to theirs."
The exchange between the two ministers reflects wider tensions
between Sunnis and Shi'ites that divide the Arab world and are behind
many of the problems in Iraq, including a stubborn insurgency and the
failure of the country to unite in support of a new constitution.
More surprising is the flare-up between Shi'ites, who hold a
majority of seats in the Iraqi parliament, and Kurds, who have so far
been willing partners in seeking to establish a stable democratic
government.
A spokesman for President Jalal Talabani accused the Shi'ite-led
United Iraqi Alliance of monopolizing power in the government and
refusing to move ahead on the resettlement of Kurds in the northern
city of Kirkuk.
"The time has come for the United Iraqi Alliance and the Kurdistan
coalition to study Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari's stepping aside
from his post," said Azad Jundiyani of Mr. Talabani's Patriotic Union
of Kurdistan. "This is for the benefit of the political process."
Mr. Jundiyani would not say whether the Kurds would withdraw from
the government if the Shi'ite alliance does not back them in removing
Mr. al-Jaafari. Mr. Talabani has made indirect threats to withdraw from
the coalition if Kurdish demands are not met.
Jawad al-Maliki, a Shi'ite legislator and a leader in Mr.
al-Jaafari's Dawa party, denounced the president's remarks.
"They should have asked us for that in a legal way, and then we
will have discussions," he said. "It is not beneficial for Iraq,
especially during this period of time because the country is heading to
a referendum and elections."
Close ties between Mr. al-Jaafari's administration and Iran --
where the prime minister and other officials lived in exile during the
rule of since-ousted dictator Saddam Hussein -- are causing unease for
a number of Iraq's Sunni Arab neighbors.
But Mr. Jabr said in Amman that those countries should support the
newly empowered Shi'ites rather than pushing them into the arms of
Iran.
"If they want to push 17 million Shi'ite Arabs in Iraq and tell
them 'You are Persian' -- you are pushing matters along a dangerous
path," Mr. Jabr said. He said charges that many Iranians were
infiltrating into Iraq were baseless.
The Saudi foreign minister also said in Washington that the new
Iraqi constitution, being put to a referendum this month, could split
the country apart and disenfranchise the Sunnis.
Mr. Jabr hit back at Saudi Arabia's treatment of its own Shi'ites.
They are believed to make up 10 percent of its native population, and
complain of being marginalized by a government allied to Wahhabi Sunni
scholars who consider Shi'ism a heresy.