Sanaa, July - For years he has been one of the most pugnacious public voices in Iraq during the government of the Baath party. He had worked at the Iraqi mission to the United Nations, then, in the years 1990-1991, at the Arab League as assistant to the Secretary General holding responsibility for Information. In the years 1993-1998 he headed the main Iraqi daily, al Gumhouriya. From 1999 he was Iraqi Ambassador to India and in 2003 to Vietnam.

Salah al Mukhtar, 61, lives currently in Yemen, but underscores that his stay is a "temporary" one, as he is convinced that one day he will return to Iraq and that it will be to an Iraq governed again by Baath. Arabmonitor obtained a thorough interview with al Mukhtar, one of the top-ranking personalities among the Iraqi émigré community.

--Is the resistance in Iraq, which we are witnessing, was prepared by former governement or it grew up during the occupation ?

--"The current resistance in Iraq, to be accurate, has not made or prepared by Iraqi government, but by Baath party leadership. At the beginning in the year 2002, the Baath party has completed the training of about 6 million Iraqi citizens to fight urban warfare by the so called Al Quds Army. President Saddam Hussein has managed all preparation, including storing about 50 million of guns, big, medium and small sizes with their necessary ammunition to fight against the occupation for ten years. The groups prepared for a guerrilla warfare has included, beside the Iraqi armed forces, organization called Fedayeen of Saddam, Baath party fighters, as well as kaders of Baath party. In the light of what I have said, you can reach the conclusion that the resistance was prepared mainly by the political leadership of Iraq. Of course, it has used the government apparatus to facilitate the preparation for a guerrilla warfare. After the occupation of Iraq thousands of people have joined the armed resistance: some of them joined Baath party organizations, some others formulated their own organizations. For the time being, we have many different groups fighting against American colonial occupation, and these organizations have different ideological characters, including progressive forces, religious groups, nationalists, but the main organization is the Baathist one. As for the connection among these organizations, I can say that there is a strong coordination and cooperation".

--If it was prepared, how to explain the proliferation of islamist-religious groups ?

--"During a liberation warfare it's very important to mobilize all forces to fight against the occupation. All historical experiences have proven that all kind of ideologies and characters where participated in the process of liberating homeland, for example in Vietnam the Buddhist where active against the American occupation. As for Iraq, we are confronting the most dangerous colonialism ever witnessed in the history of the mankind, and because there are no outside support, the circumstances have obliged all forces to be united with each other, to guarantee the liberation of Iraq. The Islamist organizations are fighting side by side with progressive and secular forces, which is very important and necessary to kick out the imperialist occupation. Let me correct some misunderstanding. The matter of martyr operations is not limited to Islamist organizations but also the organizations under Baath party practicing in the martyr operations. This kind of way of acting is the most effective weapon in the hand of the Iraqi resistance: actually it is the Iraqi mass destruction weapon capable of deterring and defeating the American forces occupying the country. The Iraqi resistance has simple weapons, while the other party has highly sophisticated weaponry, such as jet fighters, tanks, missiles, modern technology. Therefore, to neutralize that kind of superiority, the martyr operations are the only effective weapon the resistance has. I would like to remind you that this kind of operations have been used by the Vietnamese and Tamil tigers, as well as by Palestinian organizations".

--How many Iraqis are active in the resistance ?

--"According to the intelligence of the government imposed on Iraq by Americans, the number of fighters of the Iraqi resistance is around 200 thousand as a main body, supported by another 200 thousands, but this number is not correct because about 3 million Iraqis are constituting the so called in guerrilla warfare, the ocean in which the fishs are swimming. You have to remember that the number of supporters of Baath party is about 6 million people and if we dropped half that number, still we have at least 3 millions supporting the fighters. As for the number of the fighters it is not less than 400 thousand people, well trained militarily and ideologically for more than a quarter of century. This number including the best generals of the Iraqi army, specially of the Republican guards".

--It seems that the resistance has infiltrated the new Iraq security, the new army, the new administration.

--"As I said at the beginning, the preparations for underground fighting was finished two years before the occupation. According to information released by both, American occupation sources and the resistance, the Iraqi intelligence service has penetrated all levels not only of the new Iraqi administration, imposed by the occupation, but also the highest command of American army, because the Americans are in desperate needs for translators, guides, workers, technicians, speaking Arabic, and by this way the Iraqi intelligence has infiltrated their ranks. The newly established security forces and the so called( national guard’s) have become a very good sources on the Iraqis cooperating with the Americans and the Americans. I can assure you that the Iraqi intelligence has achieved very important operations and as Mr. Paul Bremer, the American colonial administrator, has said, the most painful operations the Iraqi resistance have made were not the military one but the intelligence. You have to know that the intelligence of the resistance is the original intelligence service of Iraq, which was selected from the élite of intelligence officers to join the resistance. So the experiences of Iraqi intelligence were used perfectly against Americans and I assure you that the Iraqi intelligence under the resistance leadership has overwhelmed the CIA".

--Do you believe in the existence of Abu Musab al Zarqawi, acting in Iraq ?

--"There is no sure information about the fate of Zarqawi, some of the information suggesting that he had been killed at the beginning of Iraq’s occupation, but some other sources believe that he has been arrested by Americans. Anyway whatever the correct story is, I tell you that Zarqawi is a limited phenomenon and it is located in a specific area and playing a limited role. The US intelligence used to say that all operations are made by Zarqawi to show that those who fight against Americans in Iraq are foreigners not Iraqis, to convince American public opinion that the war against the so called( terrorism) is justified. On the other hand, the US want to underestimate the role of the Iraqi resistance in general and the Baath party in particular".

--The talks between resistance and US-Iraqi forces could work, if there is any talk ?

--"The only fact is that the US and the resistance have exchanged some letters through some mediators, in which American side has asked about what exactly the resistance wants. The resistance replied by putting together some conditions to be implemented by American occupation, as the only mean to provide American troops safe withdrawal from Iraq. Among these conditions the full and unconditional withdrawal of all US armed forces from Iraq, the compensation for both the Iraqi state and Iraqi individuals for the damages suffered, the necessity to establish an international fund to rebuild Iraq as it was before the occupation. There was no agreement between the two sides because the US looked for a negotiation with the resistance without any precondition. The resistance has insisted on meeting its conditions before starting any negotiation, which should be concentrating on the complete wit hdrawal and the details of how to implement the Iraqi demands".

--How the Arab-Islamic governements are reacting to Baghdad's call to give support to fight resistance ?

--"The reaction of Arab and Islamic governments is characterized by fear and hesitation, because they see how the American troops and the others are humiliated. We have an Arab proverb saying that( if you have nothing, you can give nothing). So the Arab governments, as well the Islamic governments, are not prepared to fight in Iraq because if the strongest empire is defeated and humiliated, how they can do what America is failed to do. But even if we suppose that some governements are preparing to send troops to Iraq, their fate will not be different from the fate of American forces".

--Can be justified the abduction of Egypt's envoy to Iraq ?

--"Those who abducted the Egyptian ambassador believing that the government of Egypt has played a negative role in Iraq by supporting American occupation and giving the hand to the puppet government in Baghdad. The best argument they are giving is the decision to upgrade the diplomatic representation to Embassy rank. The Egyptian government has rejected before the invasion of Iraq to upgrade diplomatic representation to the level of ambassador. The question of abductors is: why sending ambassador now? Also they are believing that the Egyptian step is designed to encourage other nations to send ambassadors to Iraq, which means Egypt wants to give legitimacy to the government imposed by occupation. They reached the conclusion that to stop the process of legitimizing the puppet government, they have to do something unusual as a tool of deterrence. I think this is the message of the assassins".

--Do you believe the Jaafari governement will be able to put on trial the Iraqi leadership deposed by force ?

--"It depends on American decision, because the main and the real player in Iraq is not the Jaafari government but the American occupation. If the US government takes a decision Jaafari will obey American orders, in spite the fact that the whole process is not legal from the point of view of the international law. I do believe that the issue of the trial is a tactic to press the Iraqi resistance not to insist on its conditions and to stop its attacks, or at least reduce the volume of attacks".

--How could work togheter Iraqi Shiite agenda, American occupation agenda and Kurdish projects to create an independent entity ?

--"The main objective of the US in Iraq is to transform Iraq from a strong, unified state into a week one. To do so it has to encourage all kind of conflicts and disturbances, on the basis of sect and ethnic affiliation. Therefore the United States is not interested in harmonizing different agendas, in contrary it is working on an old agenda, which is American-Israeli agenda, to divide Iraq into three tiny entities. Now, it is necessary to keep all parties fighting each other just to pave the way to impose a full control over Iraq".

--Do you think that the Iraqi autorithy will be able to draft a Constitution ?

--"Drafting a Constitution is very easy issue, but the more difficult issue is how Jaafari can activate and impose that Constitution in time when the resistance is the main power in Iraq".

--Who are the Sunni Muslims who joined the committee which has to write the Constitution ?

--"They are a small number of citizens without weight or effective role in Iraq. They are nobody in terms of the fighting in Iraq. Sunni, Shiite, Kurd are the maid of the CIA, and it doesn’t work in the longer range, because Iraq is one nation, one state, one destiny, and no one can change this fact".

--Do you think is there any chance in the future for Baath party to restart to work officially as Baath in Iraq ?

--"If you mean that Baath party will join the so called( political process) under the occupation, I assure you that the party will never join this process. But if you mean whether Baath party will return to the power or not, I tell you that it will capture the power again, because it has the upper hand in the battlefield: by watching the development of the armed struggle and the Iraqi resistance, you can make the conclusion that whoever is controlling the land in Iraq will be the future government".

This interview was conducted by Italian news agency called : arabmonitor.info
24 -7 -2005

Courtesy of SALAH AL MUKHTAR