Addressing the Pilgrims He received in Medina -Sayyed Fudlullah said: The Independent Option is our choice and those who support America will return empty- handed .

The Religious Authority Sayyed Muhammad Hussein Fudlullah continued to receive last Saturday and Sunday delegations of pilgrims from all over the world including pilgrims from the Western world especially from Scandinavia, Europe, and Australia.

He also received huge crowds of Iraqi pilgrims who came from all parts of the World. The Meetings presented an opportunity for them to enquire about the American war and the future of Iraq, which is the focus of the whole world in this critical stage.

On his part Ayatallah Baqir Al-Nasiri, one of the leaders of the Iraqi opposition called for taking this opportunity to listen to the Sayyed guiding instructions, being the knowledgeable scholar who lights our road in these difficult times, as well as the religious authority, which offers the judgments that protect us.

The Sayyed than addressed the huge gathering. He pointed out in the beginning to the fact that the fundamental feature that distinguishes the Muslim is that he is concerned with the problems of fellow Muslins and the downtrodden in his mind, movement, stances and relations, without any sectarian or racial complications. He added that Islam itself is now being threatened in its very existence.

He further explained that the Palestinian issue is one of the most important Islamic causes and that it is being subjected to an American Israeli siege, as a prelude to invade the Arab and Muslims region.

The Sayyed considered that a part of the American war against Iraq serves the Israeli interests for it prevents any power in the region with the ability to compete with Israel from building its strength .Iraq with its economic, human and scientific potential was prepared to assume this position, but the policies of the Iraqi dictator gave the American the chance they need to destroy all these potentials.

The Sayyed answered the questions of the Iraqi pilgrims, which focused on the way to get out of the current impasse where the people are cornered between the Americans and the Sadami regime. He explained that we sympathize with all the sufferings of the Iraqi people, but America is not the deliverer, while the regime has always been one of its ready-made tools.

He added that the US wants to put its hands, on the Iraqi oil as an advanced step towards taking control of all the oil and the resources of the world. It also seeks to circumvent and besiege any potential rival to its influence such as the European Union on Japan.

H.E. pointed out that America that kills scores of Palestinians daily but with Israeli hands, will never think of the interests of the Iraqis; it says that it would be entrusted with the Iraqi oil, but when did America give back what it is entrusted with. What about the Iranian funds in the American banks?

Regarding the future of Iraq, the Sayyed said it seems very blur, but one thing is clear: America will occupy Iraq, and those who support her will remain marginal.

He added that we are not asked to choose between death and fever but between two deadly kinds of cancer.

Yet we could make our own independent choice. But to do so, we have to surpass all power sectarian and confessional differences.

We have to multiply our efforts, creating a general atmosphere of unity that the intelligence agencies cannot break despite all its current efforts.

February 3, 2003  ZulHijj 2, 1423