"IRAN STABBED THE UMMAH IN THE BACK"---ZAWAHIRI
INTERNATIONAL TERRORISM MONITOR---PAPER NO.340
B.RAMAN
In December, 2007, As-Sahab, the propaganda-cum-PSYWAR wing of Al Qaeda, had disseminated a four-part interview with Aymanal-Zawahiri, No.2 to Osama bin Laden in Al Qaeda, on the state of the global jihad towards the end of 2007. In the interview, he made asevere attack on Iran and accused it of stabbing the Ummah in the back in Afghanistan and Iraq. The text of the relevant portion of the interview is given below:
As-Sahab: The Americans are threatening Iran with an imminent strike. Dose Iran expect from the Muslim Ummah to help it to repel the American aggression against it?
Zawahiri: Iran stabbed the Muslim Ummah in its back, and recorded a historic mark of shame against itself and all of the Shiites who followed it. And the effects of this stab will stay in the memory of the Muslims for a long time to come. And the strange contradiction to which I would like to call attention is that despite the fact that Iran allowed the Crusader forces into Iraq, recognized the puppet government there and motivated its militias to participate in its army, security and police, and despite its recognition of the puppet government in Afghanistan, it warns America of a multitude response against its interests worldwide should it attack Iran. Is American occupation of Iranian territories prohibited but permissible in Iraq and in Afghanistan? And is Tehran more important to them than Karbala and Najaf? Why does Khamene'i threaten America with a multifold retaliation if Iran is struck but didn't move a finger when American rockets pierced the tomb of Imam Ali (Allah bless him) in Najaf? Don't all of these errors and contradictions require that everyone with a remnant of intelligence and conscience review many things, and reread many more things?
As-Sahab: But Iran considered itself to be the winner politically through its cooperation with the Crusader invasion in Iraq and Afghanistan in that it freed itself from two regimes hostile to it and its influence spread east and west.
Zawahiri: Iran embroiled itself in its evil deeds, and it is now besieged from the east and the west.
2. In this connection, reference is invited to my power-point presentation on International Jihadi Terrorism of December 13,2007, in which I had highlighted the following characteristics of Al Qaeda (http://www.southasiaanalysis.org/papers26/paper2502.html )
SUNNI A-BOMB VS SHIA A-BOMB. SUPPORT FOR SUNNI A-BOMB.
SILENCE ON IRAN’S RIGHT TO ACQUIRE AN A-BOMB.
LOUD CONDEMNATION OF US INTERVENTION IN AFGHANISTAN & IRAQ. MUTED REACTIONS TO REPORTED US PLANS TO INTERVENE IN IRAN.
BIN LADEN’S SO-CALLED INTERNATIONAL ISLAMIC FRONT IS, IN FACT, AN INTERNATIONAL WAHABI FRONT AGAINST CHRISTIANS, JEWISH PEOPLE, HINDUS & SHIAS AND THEIR MUSLIM STATE SUPPORTERS (31-12-07)
(The writer is Additional Secretary (retired) Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, New Delhi, and, presently, Director, Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai. E-mail: seventyone2@gmail.com )
