Iraqi Insurgent Alliance

[slaar]

Potentially big news this evening:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,2129645,00.html

Seven of the most important Sunni-led insurgent organisations fighting the US occupation in Iraq have agreed to form a public political alliance with the aim of preparing for negotiations in advance of an American withdrawal, their leaders have told the Guardian.

In their first interview with the western media since the US-British invasion of 2003, leaders of three of the insurgent groups - responsible for thousands of attacks against US and Iraqi armed forces and police - made clear that they would continue their armed resistance until all foreign troops were withdrawn from Iraq, and denounced al-Qaida for sectarian killings and suicide bombings against civilians.

Speaking in Damascus, the spokesmen for the three groups - the 1920 Revolution Brigades, Ansar al-Sunna and Iraqi Hamas - said they planned to hold a congress to launch a united front within the next few weeks and appealed to Arab governments, other governments and the UN to help them establish a permanent political presence outside Iraq.

Abd al-Rahman al-Zubeidy, political spokesman of Ansar al-Sunna, a salafist (purist Islamic) group with a particularly violent reputation in Iraq, said his organisation had split over relations with al-Qaida, whose members were mostly Iraqi, but its leaders largely foreigners.

"Resistance isn't just about killing Americans without any aims or goals. Our people have come to hate al-Qaida, which gives the impression to the outside world that the resistance in Iraq are terrorists. We are against indiscriminate killing, fighting should be concentrated only on the enemy," he said.

He added: "A great gap has opened up between Sunni and Shia under the occupation and al-Qaida has contributed to that."

It's a long way from an internal Iraqi political settlement, but it is a sign that perhaps pronouncements that Iraq would disintegrate if the US and UK withdraw are overblown. As, just as Juan Cole has repeatedly been arguing, are pronouncements that all insurgents are Al Qaeda, which is ridiculous.

 

[slaar]

This is the full report, it's very interesting:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,2129544,00.html

 

[MikeMcc]

If true, it is possibly a 'good' step in that it wil give the US a 'recognised' body to deal with rather than dealing with the various warloads seperately. Hopefuly it may make a withdrawal easier.

 

[DrRingDing]

They'll be splits galore in this union before long.

 

[Detroit City]

If true, it is possibly a 'good' step in that it wil give the US a 'recognised' body to deal with rather than dealing with the various warloads seperately. Hopefuly it may make a withdrawal easier.

what you don't understand is that the US doesn't want to withdraw...they'll be there until all the mideast oil is gone.

 

[moono]

what you don't understand is that the US doesn't want to withdraw...they'll be there until all the mideast oil is gone.

I don't think they can afford it. They must have been hit , so far, for an amount of cash in excess to the oil industry profits anyway. As long as the Iraqis refuse to co-operate, and never sign away their oil, the Americans are losing money. Their government is a business, after all , a business that occasionally makes democratic/constitutional noises.

 

[Detroit City]

I don't think they can afford it.

yea well the UK couldn't afford their empire after WWII either....same will happen to the US. This is the beginning of the end for the US's dominance in the world scene. Give it another 40 or 50 years and someone other nation will be running the world.

 

[dum dum]

'We will not speak to Terr rists'

 

[rekil]

Also.

U.S. troops have been in an uneasy alliance with Sunni insurgents in Amriya, a district west of Baghdad, for about six weeks. The pact ensures no more attacks against U.S. troops, an amnesty for previous attacks and support to operate as an unofficial police force.

 

[moono]

U.S. troops have been in an uneasy alliance with Sunni insurgents in Amriya, a district west of Baghdad, for about six weeks. The pact ensures no more attacks against U.S. troops, an amnesty for previous attacks and support to operate as an unofficial police force.

The same situation existed between the Americans and al Sadr, before the Americans tried to assassinate him and Rumsfeld got the civil war going.

 

[EddyBlack]

There is a strong resitance to occupation. One of the main obstacles seems to be the secatrian war where both sides are indiscriminatly targeting civilians, particularly in Baghdad.

 

[London_Calling]

There is a strong resitance to occupation. One of the main obstacles seems to be the secatrian war

There's also a very a stong resistance to changing the status quo because there's too much money to be made on the black markets, esp. in oil. The more chaos, the easier it is for 'resisters' to do business.