Daesh is a creation of America: Sudan’s former VP

August 8, 2017 (KHARTOUM) – The former Sudanese First Vice President Ali Osman Taha recently said the terrorist organisation of the Islamic State known also by its acronym ‘Daesh’ is an American creation that successfully targeted the Sunni Islam in Iraq and Syria.

“Daesh is a scarecrow that has been raised in Iraq and Syria on the pretext of establishing an Islamic State to eliminate the Sunni Islam and that has been done,” said Taha in a meeting held at his house in Khartoum with a number of the members of the Popular Defence Forces and the ‘National Sa’ihoon’.

The former vice-president went further to say that Daesh was a battle of thought waged by the West to prevent the spread of Islam in its countries and impacting the components of its civilization.

“The West is sure of losing the intellectual and cultural battle, so it resorted to Daesh to confuse the image of Islam,” he said in an audio recording obtained by Sudan Tribune.

He further said that the ‘Khawajas’ (Westerners) “are aware if it is left to debates, human rights and freedoms, and argument for argument, they will lose. So they need to confuse, closely control and stifle the matter and so do the Pharaohs and tyrants across the history”.

Taha who negotiated the Comprehensive Peace Agreement that led to the separation of South Sudan was seen in the West as a moderate and pragmatic despite his key role in Darfur war crimes. He was even perceived as seen a potential successor to President Omer al-Bashir.

However, he was criticised by the hardliners in the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) and gradually marginalized until his sack on 8 December 2013.

But, he is not the only Islamist or former senior Islamic official to make such statements.

In April 2017, the former Afghan President Hamid Karzai said Daesh is a “tool” of the United States. He told the VOA there is plenty of evidence to back up his allegation, even though the U.S. has been fighting to wipe out the Islamic State in Syria, Iraq and elsewhere.

The former Sudanese official expressed doubts about the accuracy of the videos of mass slaughtering of prisoners by the terror group, explaining that it meant to break the Muslims and questioning that “Islam is the alternative and the saviour”.

“Who can confirm that these scenes of executions are real pictures. (The victims are) bound and dressed in red with people carrying knives, and killing them in that (inhuman) way … Images even the Muslim repudiate and disavow while it scares others and pushes them to distance themselves,” he said.

Taha who was speaking after the fall of the capital of Islamic State Mosul last June said the sudden disappearance of Daesh fighters that Iraqi and American and coalition forces were fighting during eight months proves that this group is created by the United States.

“Where are the forces of Daesh? Are they bats of darkness that flew in the air, or evaporated? There is no Daesh,” he said.

He pointed out that the outcome and the result is that the Sunnis in Iraq were wiped out completely, and those who remained are now displaced or refugees.

“Only remain the Shiites and other parties, and that is happening in Syria now,” he concluded.

(ST)