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Al-Abadi: Many of ISIS supporters are in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf

October 13, 2014 at 12:49 pm

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi has expressed his astonishment towards the apology of US Vice President Joe Biden to Turkey, the UAE and Saudi Arabia days after he accused them of supporting the Islamic State (ISIS). He added that many of the “provocateurs” exist in Saudi Arabia and some of the Gulf countries.

In a TV interview with the US Al-Hurrah TV channel, Al-Abadi said that Biden spoke openly about the availability of information that confirms that some Gulf states and Turkey support ISIS. He expressed astonishment that Biden retracted his statements because these countries, as he put it, declared their support for the Syrian opposition.

Al-Abadi noted that the Gulf states and Turkey willed to support the Syrian opposition despite knowing that the strongest faction were what he described as “the terrorists belonging to ISIS, Al-Nusra and other terrorist groups”. He added: “They knew that well, but they imagined that they could use them to pressure their enemies and their rivals in the region.”

The premier also said that there is a project aimed at drawing the region into a bloody sectarian conflict and warned that “ISIS is now posing a threat to several countries such as Saudi Arabia and Turkey and may soon expand into other countries where it will pose a threat to the entire region”.

Al-Abadi said that “many provocateurs exist inside Saudi Arabia and some of the Gulf regions and they embrace the same takfiri discourse as ISIS.” He pointed out that there is a real danger to Saudi Arabia because of the ISIS threat. This, according to Al-Abadi, prompted Saudi officials to comprehend the enormity of the danger facing them since ISIS seized a number of Iraqi towns.

He called on Saudi Arabia to move quickly “in proportion to the needs of the time, so as for us to open a new and positive page with everyone”.

Several months ago, Saudi Arabia held Iraq and its policies responsible for ISIS’ seizure of control over certain parts of the country. On June 17, the Saudi cabinet expressed utmost concern vis-a-vis the developments in Iraq saying that these events “would never have taken place had it not been for the sectarian and exclusionist policies practiced in Iraq during the past years that eventually led to threatening its security, stability and sovereignty”.