Radical cleric speaks out against 'interference' in Syrian affairs while offering to mediate between protesters and Assad's regime
Ahram Online
"Radical anti-US cleric Moqtada al-Sadr on Friday rejected Western calls for Syria's President Bashar al-Assad to quit, calling the embattled leader a "brother" who stood in opposition to the United States.
For the first time Thursday, US President Barack Obama and Western leaders said that Assad must step down.
"We reject Obama's interference in Syrian affairs," Sadr said in a statement released by his office in the holy Shiite city of Najaf in south Iraq.
Sadr said he supported revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt that overthrew despots there, but added that "there are many differences between the popular revolutions and what is happening in Syria."
"The difference is not in the people and their revolution, but in the government itself -- the brother, Bashar al-Assad, is a man of opposition against the American colonial presence in the Middle East."....."
Ahram Online
"Radical anti-US cleric Moqtada al-Sadr on Friday rejected Western calls for Syria's President Bashar al-Assad to quit, calling the embattled leader a "brother" who stood in opposition to the United States.
For the first time Thursday, US President Barack Obama and Western leaders said that Assad must step down.
"We reject Obama's interference in Syrian affairs," Sadr said in a statement released by his office in the holy Shiite city of Najaf in south Iraq.
Sadr said he supported revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt that overthrew despots there, but added that "there are many differences between the popular revolutions and what is happening in Syria."
"The difference is not in the people and their revolution, but in the government itself -- the brother, Bashar al-Assad, is a man of opposition against the American colonial presence in the Middle East."....."
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