Fadlallah: No Legitimacy for Legislators of Occupation

Source: Al-Manar TV, 21-10-2008

While the Iraqi government was meeting to discuss a security pact that will provide the basis for a US occupation military presence in Iraq beyond this year, Ayatollah Sayyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah declared that the Baghdad government has no right to "legitimize" the presence of foreign troops.

Sayyed Fadlallah emphasized that any authority or establishment whether it was official or not organization hasn't the legitimacy to impose occupation on its people, legitimize its presence or provide a legal cover for it that extends the Iraqi judiciary. His eminence stressed that any security pact that would be signed between the Iraqi government and the occupation forces should call for an imminent and unconditional withdrawal of US occupation forces from Iraq.

The Lebanese top cleric also highlighted that the withdrawal of occupation forces from Iraq should not be linked to the improvement of the security situation in the country because the Americans can cause security problems in order to extend the stay of their forces. "Any agreement or pact that calls for the withdrawal of US forces should comply with the national and Islamic norms regarding Iraq's sovereignty and independence, alongside preventing occupiers of exploiting its wealth or invest it for their own interest even after their withdrawal," Sayyed Fadlallah warned.

His eminence recalled that stability couldn't happen in Iraq before the complete withdrawal of the occupation, calling on Iraqis to stay united in the political stand that seeks to expel the occupiers outside Iraq as a prerequisite that could yield to building Iraq.