"U.S. Handed Iraq To Al Qaida"

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Courtesy Of: Middle-East-Online

First Published: 2006-11-21

Last Updated: 2006-11-21

13:13:08

--Omani FM says US policy in Iraq has handed country to Al-Qaeda which controls whole regions--

DUBAI - The Omani foreign minister accused the United States in comments published Tuesday of delivering Iraq to the Islamic militants of Al-Qaeda and called for a change of strategy.

"US policy in Iraq has handed the country to the Al-Qaeda network," Yussef bin Alawi bin Abdullah told the London-based Arabic daily Al-Hayat.

"The root of the US predicament in Iraq ... is Al-Qaeda which has established itself there and now controls whole regions," he said.

"We hope that they will rethink their policy," the pro-Western Gulf state's top diplomat added.
He denied that the growing influence in Iraq of Shiite Iran was the key concern of Gulf Arab states.

"It's not so much the expansion of Shiism that they fear as the deteriorating security inside Iraq."

He ruled out the possibility of US military action against Iran in the face of US and Israeli suspicions about its nuclear programme.

"I don't think that anyone is going to threaten Iran militarily," he said.

The minister said Oman had no plans to resume trade ties with Israel broken off after the renewed Palestinian uprising broke out six years ago.

"There's no reason to reopen (our trade office) at a time when Israel is not making the slightest move towards peace and is continuing its aggression against the Palestinians," he said.

In August 1996, the sultanate became the first Gulf state to exchange trade offices with the Jewish state, but it closed its own office in Tel Aviv the following year and closed Israel's in Muscat in 2000.

Source:

http://middle-east-online.com/english/?id=18398