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Iranian FM publishes op-ed calling for end of Wahhabism
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... , the Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif wrote an op-ed for The New York Times ...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize... in which he denounced Riyadh for promulgating Wahhabism across the region and called for an abolition of that ideology, which has been described as the main source of global terrorism. In the article published on Tuesday, Zarif claimed that "tainted petrodollars" are helping to fuel a narrative which is attempting to convince the world that the former al-Qaeda affiliated Jabhat al-Nusra ...formally Jabhat an-Nusrah li-Ahli al-Sham (Support Front for the People of the Levant), also known as al-Qaeda in the Levant. They aim to establish a pan-Arab caliphate. Not the same one as the Islamic State, though .. ... group in Syria has now become a moderate group. This, he charged, is part of Saudi Arabia’s efforts to continuously support and fund such forces. These moves on the part of Riyadh, Zarif claimed, are "based on the false premise that plunging the Arab world into further chaos will somehow damage Iran." Zarif argued that Riyadh is playing up fears of an Iranian threat in order to justify its continued support to dangerous Islamist groups across the region, which he stressed are as big a threat to Sunni Arabs as they are to Shiites. This cannot last, he wrote, "as the realization grows that Riyadh’s persistent sponsorship of extremism repudiates its claim to be a force for stability." The Wahhabist ideology which Riyadh has promoted for decades, Zarif argued, has inspired, "virtually every terrorist group abusing the name of Islam ‐ from Al Qaeda and its offshoots in Syria to Boko Haram ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality... in Nigeria." The Iranian Foreign Minister’s editorial comes as tensions between Tehran and Riyadh continue to escalate in the aftermath of the Hajj stampede in Mecca in September 2015 and the Saudi execution of the Shiite holy man Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr last January ‐ which was followed by an Iranian mob ransacking the Saudi embassy in Tehran and the severing of ties between the two regional powers. Since that time Riyadh has endorsed the Mujahideen-e Khalq (MEK) Death Eater group which seeks to overthrow the Iranian regime, and the proxy war between the two countries across the region, most notably in Syria and Yemen, continues. Nevertheless Zarif concluded his article by suggesting Riyadh could possibly be part of solution. "We invite Saudi rulers to put aside the rhetoric of blame and fear, and join hands with the rest of the community of nations to eliminate the scourge of terrorism and violence that threatens us all," he wrote. Posted by: Fred 2016-09-15 |
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| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=467572 |