The Associated Press reports that "key Iraqi officials" say private Saudi citizens are providing millions of dollars in funding to Sunni insurgents in Iraq. Much of the money is used to buy weapons.
The Iraqi officials interviewed for the article say most of the money comes from "private Islamic donations inside Saudi Arabia, known as zakat." The zakat is one of the five pillars of Islam, and all Muslims are obliged to give it, primarily for the "poor and needy." Some Saudis know where the money goes, the officials say, but others give the money to Islamic clerics and don't know where it goes.
The two Iraqi officials said that while some of the funding goes to Iraqi Sunni leaders, who then disburse it, other channels are being used to send money directly to insurgents. Among them are Iraqi drivers working on road links between Iraq and neighboring countries.
Several drivers interviewed by the AP in several Middle East capitals said Saudis have been using religious events, like the annual hajj pilgrimage to Mecca and a smaller midyear pilgrimage, to send money into Iraq on buses that carry returning pilgrims.
"They sent boxes full of dollars and asked me to deliver them to certain addresses in Iraq," said one driver who would give his name only as Hussein for fear of reprisal. "I know it is being sent to the resistance, and if I don't take it with me, they will kill me."
AP also says an Iraqi Sunni cleric used US $25 million to buy an anti-aircraft missile from Romania on the arms black market.
The Daily Princetonian reports that the Iraq Study Group also noted in its report that Saudi individuals were funding insurgent activities, and called the kingdom "passive and disengaged."
 |
|
|
|
|
Subscribe via RSS Feed:
    |
The Saudi government denies that money is flowing from their country into Iraq. After the 9/11 attacks, and under pressure from the US, Saudi officials cracked down on zakat, eliminating collection boxes from public places like malls and supermarkets.
"There isn't any organized terror finance, and we will not permit any such unorganized acts," said Brig. Gen. Mansour al-Turki, a spokesman for the Saudi interior ministry. He said that about a year ago the government set up a unit whose mission is to track any "suspicious financial operations."
In an interview Thursday with the Daily Princetonian, Prince Turki al-Faisal, Saudi ambassador to the US and former Saudi intelligence chief, said it would not be Saudi Arabia's interests to have a "perpetually disturbed" Iraq on its border.
"The violence in Iraq today is driven by political ambition, not by sectarian or ethnic reasons," he added, "and the political ambition used sectarian and ethnicity for their purposes. So that is why I said a political solution from inside Iraq is the only way we can solve this problem, not military, and definitely not one whereby one sect or another can be described as becoming dominant in Iraq."
Officials say the reason for any money going to Iraq is straightforward - many Sunnis have family ties in Iraq and they see Iraq's Sunnis in a "fight for survival" with Iraq Shiites. The larger Sunni-Shiite battle is also playing out in other regions in the Middle East. The Guardian reports that events in Lebanon are being driven by the larger battle for dominance in the region being fought by largely Sunni Saudi Arabia and largely Shiite Iran.
Riyadh is indirectly confronting Tehran in Palestine, where it supports President Mahmoud Abbas against the Iranian-backed Hamas, and in Lebanon, where it is bankrolling the Siniora government.
But the key battleground is Iraq. The Saudis fear that a failure of the US there would confirm the country's domination by Iran, jeopardize the survival of Iraq's Sunni minority and upset political and religious power balances along the entire western Gulf littoral. "Since America came into Iraq uninvited, it should not leave uninvited," a Saudi government adviser, Nawaf Obaid, told the Washington Post, quoting Prince Turki al-Faisal. "If it does, one of the first consequences will be a massive Saudi intervention to stop Iranian-backed Shia militias from butchering Iraqi Sunnis."
The guardian quoted Mr. Obaid as saying Saudi Arabia is ready to fund and equip Sunnis in Iraq, as Iran has funded and equipped Shiites. It could also "massively expand oil production to deflate world prices and ruin Iran's oil-based economy." Iranian officials, for their part, say Saudi Arabia has nothing to fear from their country.
For making his remarks to the Post, Saudi Arabia fired Obaid, who worked as a security advisor for the government. He had always said his remarks were his own and not the governments, but Prince Turki said "We felt that we could add more credibility to his claims as an independent contractor by terminating our consultancy agreement with him."
Last month, The Associated Press reported that Saudi Interior Minister Prince Naif said Iraq had become a threat to the entire region, and that it was the main base for terrorism.
The minister also said Saudi youth were being lured to fight in Iraq. US and Iraqi officials have long complained about Saudi extremists crossing into Iraq to join the battle against American and coalition forces. US officials announced last April that Saudis were one of the top five nationalities among foreign fighters captured by coalition forces in Iraq.
- Islam advisor cites 'calmer' Guantanamo (Los Angeles Times)
- Impact of US police being sent to Iraq felt on street (USA Today)
- Rumsfeld wants torture case dismissed (Military.com)
- Cyprus says will get tough if EU accepts Turkish offer (Reuters)
Feedback appreciated. E-mail Tom Regan.
RSS feed
