Shiite rejection to Saddam's call to declare Jihad against occupation forces

The Shiite religious "Hawza" in al-Najaf has rejected the call made by the toppled Iraqi President Saddam Hussein in a message to the Shiite population on Wednesday in which he called for the armed struggle against the occupation forces.

The director of the office of Ayatullah Ali al-Seistani, Muhammad al-Khaqani said that "this message is false and he ( saddam) tries to use anything (for his purpose)." He added that "Saddam has to remember first the pain he had inflected on the Shiite who suffered a lot under his dictatorship. He has to remember all these things before he calls on people for Jihad, especially the Shiite."

Meantime, the chairman of the guidance committee, and general supervisor of the Iraqi foreign ministry, Ghassan Muhammad Hussein announced yesterday that Iraq will resume its diplomatic activities in 38 Arab and foreign countries before the fall of next year. He said "The first countries with which we will resume diplomatic relations are the USA, Britain, Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain." He added " the first priorities of the work of these mission is to provide consul services and then contributing to the efforts exerted to rebuilding Iraq."

Meanwhile, the Iraqi daily al-Sabah (morning), mouthpiece of the Iraqi media network said that the occupation forces intends to start as from the mid of next week to train Iraqis on guarding the border crossing with Syria in order to prevent "terrorists" from entering the country and to end the expansion of the "black market" trade on the border between the two states. Several days ago, the American occupation forces completed training operations of several Iraqis to guard the borders and monitor crossings and border areas with Iran.