Iraqi minister calls Saudis, "camel jockies."

I must admit that this one gave me a giggle. The Iraqi Interior Minister, Bayar Jabor, responding to Saudi criticism over the growing influence of the Iraqi Shias, described that criticism as unacceptable interference in Iraqi affairs by a "dictatorship" and a "Bedouin riding a camel." Tee hee.

Mr. Jabor makes a good point that Sunni Arab states should be supporting the Shia in Iraq to avoid pushing them into the waiting tentacles of the Iranians.

But Mr Jabor, who belongs to one of Iraq's main Shia Islamist parties, said in Amman on Sunday night that Arabs should back the Shia instead of sending them into the arms of the Iranians.

"If they want to push 17m Shia Arabs in Iraq and tell them 'You are Persian' ... you are pushing matters along a dangerous path," he was quoted as saying in a Reuters report.

But Mr Jabor said there was much to criticise in Saudi Arabia. "There are regimes that are dictatorships A whole country is named after a family. If we open these topics without inhibitions, it is neither to our benefit nor to theirs."

In Iraq, he said, women were gaining equal status while in Saudi Arabia, women still could not drive. Saudi Arabia's Shia minority should also be better treated, he said. "There are problems within the kingdom of Saudi Arabia ...there are more than 4m Shi'ites in the kingdom who are considered as third-class citizens," he was quoted as saying.

TAGS: Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Shia, Sunni