Iraq Press Roundup

The al-Basaer newspaper of The Association of Muslim Scholars in its Wednesday editorial titled "Liberation of Iraq is a medal to the resistance and won't be taken by the agents" said the goal of the Iraqi resistance and opposition parties for a U.S. troop withdrawal from Iraq is a means to achieve sovereignty and liberation.

The editorial said U.S. troop withdrawal from Iraq is an essential requirement for negotiations regarding the future relationship with the occupying United States and a point of contention among those opposing the U.S. presence in the country.

It said the reason many Iraqi political blocs gather in conferences and meetings to reach a national agenda agree on the one principle regarding the U.S. presence is because the political factions have failed to reach an agreement with U.S. officials.

"As long as the parties benefiting from the occupation and those who operate in its shadow insist on calling the occupation forces 'liberation forces,' as opposed to nationalist and resistance forces who call it an invasion force, resistance is a holy and legitimate duty," the newspaper said.

"Any step taken regarding the national project in Iraq, even if it includes meetings with Arab and international countries, the United Nations, the Arab League or the Islamic Conference Organization, will not succeed or reach a consensus unless it names the U.S. forces occupiers," it said.

It added the resistance aims to direct its efforts in Iraq toward rebuilding the destroyed Iraq and to turn the weapons of the resistance into weapons of reconstruction.

"None of the positive steps could be achieved, nor could Iraq get back its sovereignty, as long as the occupiers are still present," the newspaper said.

In a second editorial running with the title "The United States orders and Iraq obeys," the newspaper said the political parties in Iraq today admit that without the U.S. occupation of Iraq, they would be in exile in neighboring countries offering their services to the enemy.

This editorial said it is within reason to perceive the religious and ethnic factions as backing the occupation in order to achieve their goals in Iraq as sort of a payback for getting their current positions.

"The occupier uses the Iraqi factions as tools to oppress the Iraqis for as long as they wish," the newspaper said.

The influential newspaper added that in spite of the cruelty of the occupier, the dreams of the Iraqi people are "free" and "unoccupied," but they still resist because they do not trust the occupation forces or the Iraqis who deal with them.

It said no civil organizations operate in Iraq without forming an alliance with the politicians. It added that Paul Bremer, the former U.S. civilian administrator, and those who governed Iraq after him ignored the true backbone needed to form a civil society and in fact worked to weaken them.

"Paul Bremer and the Iraqis who came with him marginalized workers' unions as well as the professional and cultural unions of the writers, journalists, artists, lawyers and athletes," the Sunni newspaper said, adding some Iraqis have set up organizations to care for orphans and the needy.

The newspaper said the Oil Workers Union had an essential role in resisting and confronting the projects of the occupier, like the oil laws and the long-term security agreement in negotiation between the United States and Iraq.

It also said the sports union is able to resist the occupier-allied Iraqi government whose interference in their matters resulted in a boycott of the government in protest.

"The occupier and their agents try to interfere with other non-governmental organizations that defend human rights violated by the occupier's encouragement of sectarian and ethnic divisions," the Saudi-based al-Basaer newspaper concluded.