Press Release
13 June 2014
Statement No. 2
An
uprising by millions of Iraqis or an attack by a terrorist group?
Removal of Maliki from office, ending Iranian meddling and the establishment of a temporary nationalist, democratic and non-sectarian government, is the sole solution to the crisis in Iraq that is endorsed by significant sections of Iraqi society. The popular uprising in Iraq and the liberation of its cities one after the other, together with the collapse of Maliki’s forces and their mass desertion and retreat in face of the tribes, is continuing on a rapid basis. A number of facts on this development are as follows:
1. The propaganda by Maliki and his masters in Tehran, generously repeated by the Western media, that these regions have fallen into the hands of extremist terrorists of the Islamic State of Iraq in the Levant (ISIL), is ludicrous and baseless. Liberating around 100,000 square kilometers of Iraqi territory with a population of several million by an isolated and extremist group of several hundred or even several thousand members is preposterous. It is the tribes and ordinary Iraqi citizens who have risen up in anger against Maliki.
2. Under the pretext of fighting terrorism,
Maliki and the Iranian regime on the one hand try to justify the interference
of the Iranian terrorist Qods Force and the invasion of Iraq by the
revolutionary guards and on the other hand attempt to encourage the United
States to militarily interfere in favour of Maliki to repeat its past blunder
in Iraq, on an even more dangerous scale. We in the West have to acknowledge
that this is a popular revolution against Maliki and the suppressive and
criminal regime, organized with the assistance of the United States and of
course under the guidance and leadership of the religious fascists ruling Iran
with the expenditure of hundreds of billions of dollars of the assets and oil wealth
of Iraq.
3. The Iranian regime is now poised to save
Maliki. In a telephone conversation, President Rouhani has promised Maliki
every kind of cooperation.
Fox News wrote on June 13: "Some 150
fighters from the Revolutionary Guards elite Quds force have already been
dispatched by Tehran, and the division's powerful commander, Qassem Suleimani,
met with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki Thursday and pledged to send two
notorious Iranian brigades to aid in the defence of Baghdad."
And The
Wall Street Journal of June 12 wrote: “At least three battalions of the Quds
Forces, the elite overseas branch of the Guards, were dispatched to aid in the
battle against the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham, an offshoot of al Qaeda
rapidly gaining territory across Iraq, they said: “One Guards unit that was
already in Iraq fought alongside the Iraqi army, offering guerrilla warfare
advice and tactics and helped reclaim most of the city of Tikrit on Thursday;
two Guards' units, dispatched from Iran's western border provinces on
Wednesday, were tasked with protecting Baghdad and the holy Shiite cities of
Karbala and Najaf.”
These reports only reveal part of the reality
and support our constant warnings about the meddling of Iran.
4. Reports on Nineveh and Salahaddin provinces
filed by journalists from CNN, al-Jazeera and BBC among others, support our
previous intelligence that no violence or aggression has been carried out
against the indigenous population. The residents of these areas are happy that
Maliki’s forces have fled and public and private properties now enjoy relative
security. The mass exodus of refugees from these cities is due to the
bombardment by Maliki’s forces, although 48 hours after the liberation of
Nineveh, the wave of refugees has markedly ebbed and some have already begun to
return.
5. Yesterday, in its 12-article statement, the
Association of Muslim Scholars in Iraq that plays an important role in the
developments in the country called on the Iraqi revolutionaries to treat people
well, help solve their problems, treat the ethnic groups well, refrain from
taking hostages, forgive and forget and treat believers of all religions
without prejudice. In this framework, the armed tribes refrained from entering
Samarra in Salahaddin Province where the shrine of two Shiite Imams is located
and are trying to gain control of the city through negotiations with the
government forces in order to prevent any killings and bloodshed.
General
George Casey disclosed on June 2013 that when he was the commander of U.S.
forces in Iraq in 2006, the Iranian regime blew up this sacred shrine and
blamed it on the Sunnis instigating a great massacre in Iraq. Casey stated that
he had personally reported to Maliki that Iran had been behind the explosion,
but Maliki took no action.
6. Sheik Abdulqader Nael, one of the sheiks of
al-Anbar Province, stated on June 11 that the revolutionaries are calling for
the formation of a national salvation government, a technocratic Iraqi
government to hold a fair election within a specific timeframe.
7. Sheik Ali Hatam, the chief of Al-Dulaim
Tribe and one of the leaders of the current revolution, in a 6-article
statement on June 11 called on all the people and fighters to protect the
“lives of all citizens and all public and private properties” and to avoid
taking revenge and not to allow “any form of terrorism”. He added that “all
soldiers and government employees that have been coerced by Maliki and driven
to sectarian war” will be forgiven. He thanked “all security forces that did not
open fire on the people” and stated that they will be rewarded. Sheik Ali Hatam
asked for the removal of Maliki from office and the establishment of a
temporary government to save Iraq. He said that the tribes are fully prepared
to take on the security file in the liberated provinces.
8. In addition to the revolutionary guards,
Maliki is using the paramilitary forces associated with the Iranian regime such
as Asai’b Ahl al-Haq and Kata’eb Hezbollah to suppress the popular uprising.
These paramilitary forces blew up some of the bridges over the Tigris and
Euphrates Rivers in order to hamper the advancement of revolutionary forces
creating massive problems for the population.
9. On June 11, Maliki admitted his forces are
fleeing and said, “…the leaders who acquiesced with this conspiracy and those
who retreated and those who showed weakness should all be punished…all those
who laid down their arms should be prosecuted. They shall never avert
punishment”.
10. In such conditions, the Iraqi al-Taghier TV
channel revealed on June 13 that on the orders of Maliki, billions of dollars
of cash has been transferred in armored vehicles from Iraq's Central Bank to
the Baghdad Green Zone to be subsequently transferred to Iran.
I once again repeat the proposal of the
conference in Brussels on June 11 as the sole practical solution to the crisis
in Iraq in order to avert further bloodshed. This solution includes the removal
of Maliki from office, ending all Iranian meddling in Iraq and the formation of
a nationalist, democratic and non-sectarian government that encompasses all
segments of Iraqi society. This solution is widely supported by Iraqi
nationalistic and democratic forces. Instead of assisting Maliki, that will
only lead to more blood being spilled, the United States and the European Union
should force Maliki to accept this solution and immediately step down from
power.
STRUAN STEVENSON, MEP
President of the European Parliament’s
Delegation for Relations with Iraq
