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U.S. Set To ‘Occupy’ Gulf States After Iraq: Bin Laden
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A
TV grab taken from Al-Jazeera shows an undated still image of Bin
Laden (AFP)
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DOHA,
January 5 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – The United States
will go on occupying, unless it was stopped, Saudi Arabia and the
entire oil-rich Gulf region after Iraq, a new audiotape attributed to
Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden warned on Sunday, January 4.
Aired
by the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera television, the voice said that Gulf
leaders "know that their turn is coming" after seeing
"the capture of their former comrade in treason and collaboration
with America", reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
"There
can be no dialogue with the occupiers except with weapons and I urge
Muslims to resort to jihad to repel the huge conspiracies woven
against our nation," the speaker said.
"From
the crusaders' occupation of Baghdad using the weapons of mass
destruction deceit ... to the fierce attempt to crush the jihad and
the mujahedeen in beloved Palestine using the deceit of the roadmap
and the Geneva peace initiative," he added, referring to the
unofficial Israeli-Palestinian peace plan which was officially
unveiled in the Swiss city on December 1, 2003.
The
United States was feverishly going after "those who raise the
banner of jihad under the guise of fighting terrorism, with the help
of the hypocrites, because they all know that jihad is the potent
force that can thwart all plots," the speaker said.
He
also lashed out at the United States for demanding Muslim countries to
reform their education systems.
"The
Americans' intentions have also transpired through their statements
about the need to change the beliefs, curricula and ethics of Muslims
-- to make them more tolerant, as they put it," the speaker said.
The
voice also spoke of the triple suicide
bombings in May 2003 in Riyadh, citing "the Riyadh
bombings in Rabih al-Awal this year" -- the date according to the
Muslim calendar.
The
attacks were blamed on "sympathizers" of the Saudi-born Bin
Laden, whose whereabouts have been unknown since the United States
launched a military attack in Afghanistan in October 2001.
Another
suicide bombing rocked a residential compound in the Saudi capital in
November 2003.
Bin
Laden, who was stripped of his Saudi citizenship a decade ago, lashed
out at Saudi leaders for cracking down on his Saudi devotees
"before the Riyadh bombings in Rabih al-Awal this year".
He
scorned Gulf rulers for cooperating with the United States, adding
that they had done so at Washington's behest "in the hope of
winning its approval".
Recent
Tape
The
reference to the
capture of the ousted Iraqi leader "shows that the
tape was recently recorded," Al-Jazeera's news anchor said.
"The
audiotape contains new things. It refers to the Geneva Initiative and
the capture of Saddam Hussein on December 13," Al-Jazeera editor
Ibrahim Hilal earlier told AFP.
The
last Bin Laden audiotape, aired by Al-Jazeera on October 18, appeared
to be several months old.
The
Dubai-based Al-Arabiya satellite channel aired an audiotape attributed
to Bin Laden on December 20, but Al-Jazeera said it was the same one
it had run more extensively two months earlier.
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