Aswat Aliraq | Sahwa congress chief says opposes U.S. presence in Iraq
Editor’s Note: This is the English version of the Aswat al Iraq article posted here: رئيس مؤتمر الصحوة : نعارض الوجود الامريكي في العراق which links in turn to al-Hayat
Riyadh, Jan 13, (VOI) – The Iraq Sahwa (Awakening) Congress chief said the Sahwa is against the U.S. presence in Iraq, calling on U.S. forces to withdraw and hand the country over to its people because “they are capable of maintaining security.”
“The Sahwa council has evidence that Iran was involved in criminal acts inside Iraq,” Sheikh Kamal Hammad al-Muajal Abu Risha in an interview with the Saudi edition of al-Hayat newspaper, published on Sunday, not mentioning any details about these “acts.”
“The deceased Abdul-Sattar Abu Risha had called on U.S. President George W. Bush, during a meeting with him at the province of al-Anbar, to pull out U.S. troops and hand Iraq over to the Iraqis but the U.S. president replied that it was impossible to do so before making sure security is maintained in the country,” He said.
After the assassination of his father and six of his brothers by al-Qaeda Organization in Iraq in 2004, Sheikh Abdul-Sattar founded the Anbar Sahwa Council and chaired the Iraq Sahwa Congress, an alliance encompassing 42 clans that pledged to fight al-Qaeda members.
The Sahwa tribal fighters managed to flush out armed groups from a number of areas once considered strongholds of gunmen for years.
Abdul-Sattar, however, was killed in an improvised explosive device (IED) that targeted his house in al-Ramadi, capital of the predominantly Sunni Anbar. The attack also left his bodyguard and two other escorts killed and his nephew seriously wounded.
“The resistance of occupation by all means is a legitimate affair but with current conditions in Iraq we are no longer able to tell the difference between terrorism and resistance. That’s why we support the opinion calling for stopping all forms of resistance until security is consolidated in the country. Only then we would demand the departure of occupation forces,” said Kamal Abu Risha in his interview.
“We are aware that the rapid expansion of Sahwa councils in Iraqi provinces is a significant security success for it relied mainly on the tribes that represent the Iraqi social system’s backbone,” he said.
The Sahwa congress chief called for reforming the judicial system, independence of the judiciary from politics and the country’s wealth sharing.
“Democracy is required when it comes to the selection of ruler but it could be harmful during practice. We demand democracy but in the same time we demand a central government that can firmly takes decisions regarding the interests of the people,” he said.
Abu Risha noted that Islam “has an active role in our society but we reject clerics’ interference in politics. The power of the clerics should not exceed mosques nor affect the political decision-making process.”
The Sahwa councils were set up in a number of Iraqi provinces like Diala, Ninewa and Salah al-Din as well as Anbar within efforts to muster tribal and local political powers in the fight against armed groups particularly al-Qaeda Organization.
