Q: How do you see the current conflict in Iraq?
A: Karim Aga Khan: This conflict is the most dangerous that we have experienced for a long time. Its consequences will be extremely difficult to manage, because they have impacted a number of structures: political, theological, economic, in this part of the world. Iraq lies on a fault line between two parts of the Arab world, between the Arab Muslim world and the non-Arab Muslim world; between Shia Muslims and Sunnis; between Wahhabi Muslims and Shias. The conflict has opened a series of fundamental questions which it will be necessary to manage with great prudence. It has touched the area's religious equilibrium. In Iraq, you had a Sunni-minority government in a majority-Shia country. In Syria, it's the opposite. As for Saudi Arabia, its positions on a number of points are absolutely and totally rejected by other countries of the same geographical area.
In this context, one must ask oneself the question as to what one wishes to achieve in a post-Saddam Hussain Iraq. Whether the United Nations will agree to become the principal authority for the rebuilding of Iraq? Whether we are moving towards a temporary colonization by the English and the Americans? Will elections in Iraq lead to Shia power? Will this Shia majority ally itself with Iran, with Yemen? Will there be stronger empathy between Shia Arabs and Shia non-Arabs or between Arab Shias and Arab Sunnis? These are fundamental questions. On the military and economic planes, an Iran-Iraq axis would be extremely powerful. How will Saudi Arabia and its partners react to this redistribution of cards?
In the face of these questions, we are told that the Iraqis will decide for themselves. But the post-Taliban situation in Afghanistan shows the difficulty of unifying a country, of changing a regime, of finding the leaders to lead the change.
Extracted/translated from an interview given to La Croix, France, published April 8, 2003 |
