News > Statements&Communiqués >Fadlullah calls for an Egyptian-Iranian cooperation that safeguards the Islamic entity

The Religious Authority, Sayyed Muhammad Hussein Fadlullah, issued a statement in which he commented on the latest interview of the Egyptian President, Husni Mubarak.

Fadlullah considered that Mubarak's observation concerning the Muslim Shiites are not accurate. He also called for an Arab and Islamic unifying effort that is decisive in confronting the American occupation of Iraq. He also emphasized the importance of an Iranian Egyptian cooperation to safeguard the Islamic entity. following are excerpts of the text of the communiqué:

At a time the Lebanese and the Arabs were following with great interest the Egyptian efforts to enhance reconciliation in Lebanon and strengthen the country's relation with its Arab and Islamic environment, they were surprised by the latest comments of President Mubarak in which he tried to confirm the most Shiites support Iran and not their own states.

It is surprising that in addition that such a claim is not accurate, it also contradicts with the efforts Egypt is making in Lebanon and its neighboring environment. Moreover, its timing is highly unsuccessful, since the nation expects an Arab and Islamic unifying movement that is decisive in confronting the American occupation of Iraq, and hold them responsible of the daily bloody scenes in that country…

The Egyptian President's remarks are inaccurate – perhaps because he is not receiving accurate reports in following up the Shiite Muslims, especially the Arabs among them who have been loyal to their homelands, and who have sacrificed all that is precious in defending them and in supporting the Arab and Muslim causes especially the Palestinian cause, at a time many have renounced it. In this respect, the Islamic Republic of Iran has been supporting the Palestinian people and its Intifada with everything it can offer.

The Shiites' relations with Iran, whether on the cultural level or the political one should not provoke any one, since Iran constitutes a base of confronting international arrogance and supporting Arab causes. Similarly, the relations of Sunni Muslims with Egypt should not provoke anyone. On the contrary, Egypt with the African and Islam dimensions should join lands with Iran with it its Asian and Islamic dimensions so that the two states will constitute the major pillar of enhancing Islamic unity and safeguarding the Islamic entity and so that their cooperation with the Islamic and Arab countries and liberation movements will be the basis of defending the nation from the strife the Americans have ignited and that was followed up by those parties who accuse others of unbelief; those parties whose actions and the bloody tragedies they inflicted have disgraced the Arabs and Muslims.

Ii is extremely dangerous for the Arabs official or unofficial discourse to start concentrating on the sectarian issues and to be dragged into the positions or the situations that the American occupier is trying to create at the expense of the peoples of the region, their peace and their major causes, and forget the atrocities Israel commits daily against the Palestinians or about the grand scheme to contain and defeat the nation and start making illusionary calculations about partisan gains.

The Shiite Muslims do not denounce their Islamic or Arab commitments. And nobody can question their loyalty or their national role, along with their Sunni brothers and the rest of groups and confessions in the Arab world. They stood with their Sunni brothers against the British occupation in Iraq during the 1920 revolution, and they offered huge sacrifices to liberate Lebanon from the Israeli occupation and sought to protect the country and preserve the unity of the Lebanese in the most critical stages when international parties and even some local ones were discussing partition.