(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - We talked with Sabah Jawad, director of Iraqi Democrats against occupation from London who highlights doubts about US intentions in Iraq where US actions imply indefinite occupation and interference. Following is a transcript of the interview.
Q: I understand you've spent several months in Iraq. Let's start off with the overall situation -- Did you see a big improvement taking place in the country?
Sabah Jawad: I spent three and a half months in Baghdad recently and came back last month. Each time I go to Baghdad I see the situation actually getting worse in many ways, for example, the infrastructure and the chaos as a result of the intervention of the US in the affairs of Iraq and political in-fighting between political forces in Iraq. The whole political process is corrupt and needs to be thrown out.
No matter what you hear about the reconstruction that is taking place in Iraq or if you hear the situation is back to normal, it is not true at all.
And now we have a situation where the Americans are openly attempting to corrupt whatever they can and to take Iraq's funds. Like this story you've heard about the allocation of over six billion dollars for the American Embassy, which is the biggest American Embassy in the world.
Q: What do you make of this story that Washington is asking the Iraqi government for money?
Sabah Jawad: Yes absolutely, This is coming hot on the heels of a previous request from six weeks ago when we had a delegation from the US Congress that had the audacity to ask for compensation for the American soldiers who got killed in Iraq and in the occupation as well.
Iraq needs to be compensated for the damage the US and Britain has caused in Iraq since 2003. And even before then if you take into consideration the economic sanction and the mass suffering that was inflicted on Iraq from 1991 to 2003 as well.
So Iraq is entitled to a lot of compensation from the US and Britain. But instead of that we have US Congressmen and the US demanding even more blood from the Iraqi people, sucking their blood dry.
They want to remain in Iraq, but the Iraqi people will not let them stay here any longer because as long as they stay there in Iraq we have no future of reconstruction, of prosperity, of independence, of sovereignty as well.
Q: Do you think that they will leave Iraq by the end of this year and if you think that they will then why is the largest American embassy, which is the largest embassy of any country in the world, in Iraq?
Sabah Jawad: Yes it's quite obvious they don't want to withdraw, they don't even want to withdraw now more than before because of the uprisings that have taken place in the Arab world; they want to keep their military presence in Iraq. As you said they have the biggest embassy here in Iraq and also that this embassy is supposed to staff over 16,000 employees.
I don't know of any other country where the Americans have a 16,000 staff in their embassies. This is an indication that these people will be in full control of the security situation in Iraq -- security operations. They will control Iraq's air space and the Iraqi economy. They will advise every important minister in Iraq and they will continue to interfere in the internal situation in Iraq for the foreseeable future.
So these all are indications for the future that the US does not want to withdraw from Iraq. They have invested a lot of money in the occupation of Iraq and they continue the occupation of Iraq and they want to be there to steal even more oil and to tie up Iraq in its entirety to the so-called free market and to multinational oil companies.
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