Kuwaitis slate Jordan monarch remarks

By: Sultan Ahmed

KUWAIT CITY: Several Muslim officials, figures and organizations have denounced remarks by Jordanian King Abdullah II in which he warned against formation of a Shia government in Iraq.

In an interview with The Washington Post published last week, Abdullah said creation of an Islamic government in Iraq would dramatically shift the geopolitical balance between Shia and Sunni Muslims in the Middle East.

He warned that if a pro-Iranian government were elected in Iraq, a new “crescent” of dominant Shia movements or governments could emerge stretching from Iran to Iraq, Syria and Lebanon, altering the traditional balance of power between the two main Islamic sects, Shias and Sunnis, and posing new challenges to US interests and allies.

Abdullah said the foundation of a new Shia crescent would particularly destabilize Gulf countries with Shia populations.

“Even Saudi Arabia is not immune from this. It would be a major problem. And then that would propel the possibility of a Shia-Sunni conflict even more, as you're taking it out of the borders of Iraq,” the king said.

A group of Kuwaiti religious figures gathered in Kuwait city Sunday to protest against these remarks. They also issued a statement in which they warned Muslims against 'being influenced by divisioning statements, aimed at inflicting a blow to the unity of the Islamic nation'.

The statement said the Jordanian monarch had better 'warn of the Zionist regime's plots against Arab and Islamic states instead of making such divisioning statements'.

Iraqi Vice-President Ibrahim Al-Jaafari and head of Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) Sayyed Abdul Aziz Al-Hakim also blasted at King Abdullah’s comments.

Al-Hakim said: “I wish the Jordan monarch had never said such ridiculous remarks.”

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