Al-Qaida No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahri slammed Hamas Tuesday for reportedly being ready for a ceasefire with Israel subject to a Palestinian referendum.
Al Qaida No. 2 Ayman al Zawahri.
Photo: AP
"As for peace agreements with Israel, they (Hamas) spoke of putting it to a referendum despite considering it a breach of the Sharia (Islamic law)," Zawahri said in a message posted on the Internet.
"How can they put a matter that violates Sharia to a referendum?" he added in the message, the second in a two-part series to answer about 100 questions put to him via online militant forums.
Among answers to other questions, Zawahri denied a conspiracy theory that Israel carried out the Sept. 11 attacks and blamed Iran and Shi'ite Hizbullah for spreading the idea in order to discredit the Sunni al-Qaida's achievement of striking the United States.
Earlier this month, Zawahri also pledged that his own group would attack Jews in Israel and throughout the world.
"We promise our Muslim brothers we will do the best we can to harm Jews in Israel and the world over, with Allah's help and according to his command," Zawahri said then.
Zawahri reassured supporters of al Qaida that global jihad was on track and would soon expand elsewhere.
"I expect the jihadi influence to spread after the Americans' exit from Iraq, and to move toward Jerusalem," he said to people who posted on-line questions asking when attacks on Israel would take place.
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