Iraq wants to try foreign fighters and Arabs suspected of funding the insurgency from abroad in Iraqi courts - a plan drawing objections from Saudi Arabia, which has called on Iraq to interrogate then return all Saudi detainees suspected of terror activities.
| "Members of the Master Race are exempt from local laws and ordinances. It's in the Koran someplace. You could look it up." |
Iran's interior minister, meanwhile, said Wednesday that participants in a high-level security summit in Teheran of Iraq, its neighboring nations and Egypt agree border control is a top priority. Separately, his Iraqi counterpart said Iraq has called on the ministers and security chiefs to seriously block infiltrators and to stop the flow of money into Iraq to back insurgents. "We are aware that some of the terrorists infiltrate from neighboring countries, and we call on our neighbors to arrest them and hand them over to Iraq for trial," Iraqi Interior Minister Falah Hassan al-Naqib told reporters Wednesday.
Saudi Interior Minister Prince Nayef made clear on Tuesday, however, that his country wants Iraq to hand over all Saudi detainees it is holding under suspicion of terror activities, according to the official Saudi Press Agency. Prince Nayef was quoted as saying "infiltration by some terrorists into Iraq has happened," according to the agency. "We hope and ask Iraqi authorities that any Saudi citizen they capture, they should take from him whatever they want and then hand him over to us. I speak in the name of the kingdom. This is of concern to us. If we are fully prepared to help Iraq, then this should be taken into consideration. Iraq must not be a place for training terrorists, and they could be Saudis, like what happened in Afghanistan."
| "So just hand 'em back to us, and we'll use them someplace else." |
A month ago, Iraqi interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi said authorities had 167 Arab foreign fighters in custody. More were arrested in last month's US-led military offensive to clear the city of Fallujah of insurgents. Allawi hasn't given a specific breakdown or more recent figure, but has said foreigners include Syrians, Saudis, Egyptians, Sudanese, Afghans and Moroccans. Blocking infiltration of terrorists and insurgents into Iraq is the prime focus of the two-day meeting with senior representatives from Iraq's neighbors - Jordan, Kuwait, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Turkey - as well as Iraq, Egypt and the United Nations. The gathering, an unusual attempt at high-level coordination in the sensitive area of security, is designed to help participants share intelligence on militant groups suspected of ties to the insurgency in Iraq. Abdolvahed Mousavi Lari, Iran's interior minister, told reporters Wednesday that the ministers have discussed forming security committees to work out details of tightening borders. "We agreed to step up security cooperation so that the borders can be controlled better. Border control is a top priority," Lari said on emerging from a closed meeting.
"How 'top' is it?"
"Ummm... Just behind the new subway for Qom. Soon's that done, we'll get right on it." |
In the opening session on Tuesday, Iraqi Vice President Ibrahim al-Jaafari said blocking infiltration of terrorists was the biggest assistance needed to stabilize Iraq just a month before the first elections since the April 2003 ouster of Saddam Hussein. Prince Nayef, according to the Saudi Press Agency, said participants in the conference also would be discussing a broader problem - those who "infiltrate into Iraq, train for terror operations and return from it, like Afghanistan."
| So why do you want them back? You got a quota on that catch-and-release program? |
"We assure Iraq that we will work so no harm is brought to it from our countries ...
"The situation in Iraq endangers not only the country and its people, but has also become a clear and dangerous threat to security and stability in the region," he said.
Kingdom Offers Full Support to Iraq
P.K. Abdul Ghafour ⢠Arab News
Saudi Arabia yesterday offered its full support to the interim Iraqi government to restore security in the war-torn country and prevent Iraq from becoming a training ground for terrorists like Afghanistan. "We are fully prepared to assist Iraq to prevent it from becoming a training ground for terrorists including Saudis, like Afghanistan," the Saudi Press Agency quoted Interior Minister Prince Naif telling reporters in Tehran. Prince Naif acknowledged that infiltration by Saudi terrorists into Iraq was possible. "We would like to assure Iraq that no harm would come to it from neighboring countries," he told reporters on the sidelines of a conference of Iraq's neighbors on improving security in the Arab country... |