Syria should not turn into haven for “murderers” – Najaf preacher

NAJAF / IraqiNews.com: A Friday preacher in the holy Shiite city of Najaf urged Syria not to turn into “military barracks for murderers,” calling on the Iraqi government to enhance security conditions at home. “Syria should not embrace murderers and offer its lands as military barracks for them,” Sadr al-Din al-Qabanji said during the weekly Friday congregational prayers sermon. “The Iraqi government’s demands to have an international tribunal to investigate the deadly Aug. 19 bombing attacks only aim to enlighten the world about the identity of the terrorists in order to condemn them for the constant slaughtering of Iraqis,” Qabanji said. Najaf, said to be housing the tomb of Imam Ali Ibn Abi Taleb, the Prophet Muhammad’s cousin and top holiest figure for Shiite Muslims, lies 160 km south of the Iraqi capital Baghdad. On Thursday (Aug. 3), Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki received in Baghdad the heads of Arab and foreign diplomatic missions in Iraq over the crisis with Syria. “Maliki showed members of the diplomatic missions in the country press releases by the dissolved Baath Party coming from Syria which call for ‘destroying the political process’,” read a statement by Maliki’s office as received by Iraqi News. Iraqi-Syrian relations have been recently strained after the bloody Aug. 19 bombing attacks that left 82 people killed and 1203 others wounded. The Iraqi government accused Baathists residing in Syria of involvement in the blasts and called on Syria to hand them over. Maliki pointed out that the attack on two sovereign ministries – the foreign affairs and finance – is a major crime and would only prolong the Iraqi people’s suffering, adding the crisis with Syria is not new. “We’ve had contacts at various levels with Syrian officials on the activities of the dissolved Baath Party leaders and terrorist organizations working against Iraq from within Syrian territories,” he said. “We’ve offered information and documents, the recent of which were during my recent visit to Damascus and meetings with Syrian officials. We heard good words about cooperation, but the activities of these organizations did not stop and rather increased. We’ve also provided security intelligence reports on a meeting held in al-Zabadani area on July 30, 2009 that comprised Baathists and takfirists in the presence of Syrian intelligence officials,” Maliki pointed out. He wondered “why is there insistence on harboring armed organizations and elements wanted by the Iraqi judiciary and the Interpol on Syrian territories?” “We don’t have any other option but to ask the UN Security Council to form an international criminal tribunal because Iraq is facing a serious threat from neighbors,” he said. The Iraqi prime minister also spoke of an “infiltration into Iraqi territories a few days ago by a group one of whose members was killed and the others escaped back to Syria. The operation is a rehash of another one year ago when a terrorist group entered Iraq, killed 10 policemen and returned to Syrian lands”. AmR (I) 1