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Agencies, Dec 15 - Ayman al-Zawahri, al-Qaeda's second-in-command, has purportedly condemned Arab leaders who attended the recent US-sponsored Middle East conference in the US city of Annapolis.

In an audiotape posted on the internet, a voice said to be that of al-Zawahri labelled the talks a "betrayal" to Palestinians.

Al-Zawahri said: "The Annapolis meeting was held to turn Palestine into a Jewish state."

"The tsar of Washington, the crusader, brought together 16 Arab countries and their paralysed league [as well as] Amr Moussa, the secretary-general, to sit at a table with the Israelis."

He also denounced the government of Hosni Mubarak, the president of Egypt, saying he had turned the country into a "base to supply the crusader war on Muslims and Islam."

The message was the 15th tape or video released by al-Zawahri this year, following an audiotape released in November in which he criticised Muammar Gaddafi, the Libyan leader, and announced that fighters in Libya were joining ranks with al-Qaeda.

However, the latest 20-minute statement has not been independently verified.

Labels: Luar Negeri, Palestin, Zawahri

Al-Qaeda: Bush gambling in Iraq

Kavkaz, February 14 - Al-Qaeda's deputy leader has described the US plan to send 21,500 more troops to Iraq as a gamble that is bound to fail. In an audio tape posted on the internet on Tuesday, Ayman al-Zawahiri also criticised the Democratic Party for not changing US policies.

"[Bush's] addiction to gambling ... motivates him to continue to place losing bets until he goes completely bankrupt," he said.

"Were the Americans to leave [Bush] alone, he would continue to send their forces to Iraq until the Mujahideen kill the last one of their soldiers."

Al-Zawahiri's statement was transcribed on the website of the SITE Institute, a US private organisation that tracks Islamists' use of the internet.

It was not immediately possible to authenticate the statement.

US Democrats, who removed Republicans from power in Congress in November last year amid growing dissatisfaction with policies on Iraq, were also criticised by al-Zawahiri.

He said: "The people chose you [Democrats] due to your opposition to Bush's policy in Iraq, but it appears that you are marching with him to the same abyss, and it appears that you will take part with him in the defeat."

He also said US-allied governments in Iraq and Afghanistan should consider their future.

"These traitors in Iraq and Afghanistan must face their inevitable fate, and face up to the inescapable facts. America ... is about to depart and abandon them, just as it abandoned their like in Vietnam."

Al-Zawahiri repeated his previous condemnation of the Fatah faction led by Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president.

He said: "I'm not asking them to join Hamas, the Islamic Jihad or al-Qaeda, but rather I'm asking them to return to Islam, in order to fight for the establishment of an Islamic state over all of Palestine and not for the establishment of a secularist state which will please America."

Addressing Lebanon's Muslims, al-Zawahiri urged them to reject the UN Security Council resolution that ended last summer's war between Hezbollah and Israel.

"I call on the brothers of Islam and of jihad [struggle] in Lebanon not to yield to resolution 1701 and not to accept ... the presence of international and Crusader [Western] forces in south Lebanon.

Security Council resolution 1701 led to an August 14 ceasefire in the 34-day war that broke out when Israel retaliated to a cross-border raid by Lebanese Hezbollah fighters which resulted in the capture of two of its soldiers. Agencies

Labels: Berita, Iran, Iraq, Luar Negeri, U.S., Zawahri

In a new message from Osama bin Laden's top deputy posted on the Internet, his second message this month, Dr Ayman al Zawahri urged Palestinians to turn against the Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas and his secular Fatah party.

"The Palestine-selling secularist traitors cannot possibly be your brothers, so neither confer on them legitimacy... nor participate with them in their Sharia-rejecting assemblies, nor sign with them the documents which throw away Palestine," said Al-Qaeda second-in-command.

"How is it possible for Mahmoud Abbas to be a brother of ours?" Zawahri questioned, accusing the Palestinian President of complicity with the Israelis and Washington.

The message entitled “Congratulations on the Eid To The Ummah of Tawhid" was posted Sunday on an internet site, but its authenticity could not be confirmed. alJazeera.com.

Labels: Berita, Luar Negeri, Palestin, Zawahri