Cairo – The deputy leader of al-Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahri, told the United States it is negotiating with the wrong people in Iraq, suggesting in a video released Wednesday that his terrorist group was the real power broker in the country.
The terrorist chief warned that al-Qaeda would keep fighting U.S. troops in the Muslim world and target Western nations in retaliation. But he also criticized rival Islamic militant groups, such as Palestinian Hamas, for being too soft in waging “jihad,” or holy war.
“The mujahedeen (holy warriors) will keep their weapons pointed at you until you leave our lands and cease backing our corrupt leaders,” al-Zawahri said, addressing Americans in excerpts of the video aired on al-Jazeera television.
The video – which bore the logo of al-Qaeda’s media production house al-Sahab – was the 14th time this year that al-Zawahri has issued a statement.
In his comments on Iraq, al-Zawahri appeared to suggest that Washington should be negotiating with al-Qaeda over the fate of the country. The Bush administration has been reaching out to numerous players in Iraq and to allied Mideast governments in an attempt to calm escalating violence amid calls in the U.S. for a troop reduction.
But Diaa Rashwan, an Egyptian expert on radical Islamic groups, said al-Qaeda had no intention to negotiate with Washington over Iraq. Al-Zawahri’s statement was largely rhetorical and aimed at destabilizing U.S. opinion, he said.
“He’s just trying to tell the American public that their government is failing in peace as it has failed in war in Iraq,” Rashwan said.
