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| By Israel Insider staff and partners February 23, 2006 |
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President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad blamed the United States and Israel on Thursday for the blowing up of a Shiite shrine's golden dome in Iraq, saying it was the work of "defeated Zionists and occupiers."
Speaking to a crowd of thousands on tour of southwestern Iran, the president referred to the destruction of the Askariya mosque dome in Samarra on Wednesday, which the Iraqi government has blamed on insurgents.
"They invade the shrine and bomb there because they oppose God and justice," Ahmadinejad said, referring to the U.S.-led multinational force in Iraq.
"These passive activities are the acts of a group of defeated Zionists and occupiers who intended to hit our emotions," the president said in a speech that was broadcast on state television.
Addressing the United States, he added: "You have to know that such an act will not save you from the anger of Muslim nations."
The attack on the Askariya shrine - which contains the tombs of two revered Shiite imams descended from the Prophet Muhammad - provoked mass demonstrations, attacks on Sunni mosques in Iraq, and was widely condemned across the Arab world on Wednesday.
Jordan's King Abdullah II called it "heinous." Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora said it was aimed at "splitting Shiite and Sunni Muslims." And Kuwait's new emir, Sheik Sabah Al Ahmed Al Sabah, said those who target holy places and kill innocent people "are as far as can be from the teachings of Islam."
But some Islamic clerics and the Lebanese Hezbollah organization blamed the United States.
"We cannot imagine that the Iraqi Sunnis did this," said the influential Sunni cleric Sheik Youssef al-Qaradawi, an Egyptian who lives in Qatar. "No one benefits from such acts other than the U.S. occupation and the lurking Zionist enemy."
Radical Iraqi Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who cut short a visit to Lebanon after the blast, said blame must be laid either with the Americans or the Iraqi government.
"If responsibility is not in the hands of the Iraqi government, then I consider the responsibility for this event lies with the occupation forces which should either leave immediately or according to a timetable," al-Sadr said in Damascus on his way back to Iraq.
The Iraqi Interior Ministry said four men, one wearing military uniform and three in black, entered the Askariya mosque early Wednesday and detonated two bombs, one of which collapsed the dome.
No group claimed responsibility for the attack, but suspicion fell on Sunni extremist groups such as al-Qaida in Iraq.
Iran says it will finance a PA run by Hamas, calls on other Muslim countries to pitch in
Iran has thrown a new twist into the global wrangling over Hamas, offering to fund a Hamas-led Palestinian Authority and calling on other Muslim countries to give money as well, if the West cuts off aid.
"We have the responsibility as Muslim countries to support our brothers in Palestine," Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki told reporters during a brief visit to Indonesia, which has more Muslims than any other nation.
But Israel was to quick warn that it will do everything it legally can to block money from Iran, and warned the Palestinians against aligning with what it called an international pariah.
Ali Larijani, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, issued the pledge after a meeting with Khaled Mashaal, the Hamas political leader, in Tehran.
Iran, one of Hamas' strongest backers, shares a nearly identical regional political strategy with the group that won last month's Palestinian elections by a landslide. Both have called for the destruction of Israel and neither recognizes the Jewish state.
Hamas, which grabbed a surprising parliamentary majority in last month's elections, has refused Western demands to renounce violence, accept Israel's right to exist and abide by past agreements between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
Israel regards Iran as a pariah for its support of militant groups such as Hamas and the Lebanese Hezbollah, and it accuses Tehran of seeking to produce nuclear weapons - a charge Iran denies. Last year Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Israel should be "wiped off" the map and said the Nazi slaughter of 6 million Jews during the World War II Holocaust was a myth.
Hamas leaders have already acknowledged receiving small amounts of Iranian aid, but the group has said in the past that - as a matter of preserving its independence - it did not want to rely solely on Iranian funds.
Asked if Israel would try to block the Iranian money, Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev replied that, as the money would be going to a "terrorist" leadership, "we would be entitled to use all legal means to prevent that money from reaching its destination."
Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, had called Monday for Muslim nations to provide aid to a Hamas-led government and expressed support for the group's refusal to recognize Israel.
Ahmadinejad also indicated Monday that Hamas should not fear the West's threat to cut off funds. "Since the divine treasures are infinite, you should not be concerned about economic issues," IRNA quoted Ahmadinejad as saying.
Israel and the United States have long accused Iran of giving financial and material support to Hamas. But Iran has always replied it gives only moral backing.
Hamas suicide bombers have killed hundreds of Israelis. But the group has respected an informal cease-fire since early last year.
AP contributed to this report.
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