30 July 2004	Friday	12 Jamadi-us-Saani 1425

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DUBAI, July 29: A statement in the name of the group of alleged Al Qaeda operative Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi on Thursday threatened to attack any Arab or Muslim force dispatched to Iraq as proposed by Saudi Arabia and welcomed by the United States.

"We will not stand idle if forces from any Arab or Muslim country, notably Saudi Arabia, Pakistan or Egypt, are sent to Iraq," warned the "Omar al-Mukhtar Brigades" of the Tawhid wa al-Jihad group.

The statement was posted on an Islamist website. The Saudi proposal to send Arab or Muslim forces to Iraq was discussed by US Secretary of State Colin Powell with both Saudi leaders and Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi during a visit to Jeddah which ended earlier Thursday.

The statement called on any troops sent by Arab or Islamic countries to disobey orders or risk being attacked. "Our swords will be brandished against anyone who cooperates with the Jews and Christians, whoever they are. We will strike with an iron fist all the traitors who cooperate with the Zionists," the statement said.

The message was addressed to "the Saudi and Pakistani governments who are seeking to send Muslim troops to Iraq in order to please their Jewish and Christian masters".

At a joint news conference with Allawi in Jeddah, Mr Powell had hailed what he called a "welcome idea from the Saudi government as to how to generate additional Muslim forces to participate in the work in Iraq."

He said such a force would be sent to Iraq "either as part of the (US-led) coalition or as a separate organization that would be within the framework of the coalition effort, but would be there perhaps to provide security facilities or provide protection to the United Nations."

The statement attributed to Zarqawi's group also threatened the governments of Mauritania, which has diplomatic ties with Israel, and Libya for being "subservient to their Zionist masters."

It lashed out at Libyan leader Moamer Qadhafi, the "despicable agent" who "submitted his nuclear programme to the Americans." In a separate message about reported threats by Jewish extremists to attack the Al Aqsa Mosque compound in Al Quds, the group warned any such attack would prompt strikes against "all Zionist, American and European interests in the Arab world".

"Synagogues in Europe, the United States and Egypt will be reduced to ashes" if the Muslim holy site is touched, the group warned. It said "members of the Zionist intelligence services posing as tourists" would be particularly targeted by its fighters.

Israeli media have reported that authorities fear Jewish extremists could be planning an air attack on the disputed mosque compound in a bid to derail government plans to uproot settlers from the Gaza Strip.

The Jordanian-born Zarqawi has a 25-million-dollar US bounty on his head and is blamed by both the Iraqi government and the United States for some of the bloodiest attacks in Iraq during the past 15 months' insurgency.

MUSLIM TROOPS: In Jeddah, US and Iraqi officials said here on Thursday they were discussing a Saudi proposal to dispatch Arab or Muslim troops to Iraq, either as part of the US-led multinational force or separately.

"We discussed the Saudi initiative. It is an interesting idea, a welcome idea from the Saudi government as to how to generate additional Muslim forces to participate in the work in Iraq," US Secretary of State Colin Powell told a joint news conference with Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi.

Mr Powell said such a force would be sent to Iraq "either as part of the coalition or as a separate organisation that would be within the framework of the coalition effort, but would be there perhaps to provide security facilities or provide protection to the United Nations."

The US top diplomat in Saudi Arabia as part of a Middle East and European tour, said the proposals were at an early stage but had been "welcomed" by the US which would be "examining them in the next few days."

Both Powell and Allawi said that Iraq's immediate neighbours would not be asked to participate in such a deployment. "For a variety of reasons, it was decided that it would be better if the neighbours of Iraq did not participate in the effort," Mr Powell said.

Mr Powell and Allawi were speaking following talks in Jeddah. Mr Allawi is also on a tour of the Middle East, his first since taking office on June 28, in a bid to normalize ties with Iraq's Arab neighbours.

Allawi also stressed that the force would not include troops from neighbouring Arab countries. "We will study the suggestion and we continue to discuss it with leaders of Arab and Muslim states, excluding neighbouring countries, to participate in the multinational force," the Iraqi premier said.

"I've written to Arab and Muslim leaders ... I will talk to a few of them in the next few days to establish some common ground," added Allawi. Mr Powell said Riyadh had "indicated some conditions would have to be met... with respect to the chain of command, arrangements with respect to what the troops would be doing and is it an offset to existing troops in the coalition."

According to Powell, "many" Muslim countries have been considering participating in the force. "Many of them said they needed to see a UN mandate. Now there is a UN mandate under (Security Council Resolution) 1546. They also said they wished to see a sovereign government. There is a sovereign government that is up and running," the US official stressed.

A senior US official accompanying Mr Powell said the idea was not to replace the current US-led multinational force comprising troops from some 30 countries, but to have a "supplemental" force. However, a senior Saudi official hinted that Riyadh saw Muslim troops as a potential replacement for some of the US and other Western forces deployed in Iraq, under sustained attack by insurgents. -AFP