Al-Qaeda on Monday released a new video accusing Iran of giving way to the US in Afghanistan and Iraq.
The new footage, released three days before the seventh anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, also slammed Lebanese leaders.
Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri, al-Qaeda's deputy leader focussed on what they called the "Iranian-Crusade alliance" saying the Muslim Umma [nation] was being targetted.
In the one-hand-half-hour video, al-Zawahiri said that the Muslim Umma was facing a military, ideological and media crusade by the Iranian "coalition," which had given way to the US, by letting them invade Afghanistan and Iraq.
Osama bin Laden's deputy also said Hizbullah and its leaders did not gain victory in the war against Israel in the summer of 2006, saying that outcome had been beneficial to Israel. "The most bizarre and astounding thing is that (Hizbullah's leader) Hassan Nasrallah celebrates a victory every year. "What victory?" he said. "Retreating 30 miles backwards?" he asked. "Allowing 15,000 crusading soldiers to deploy in south Lebanon?"
Al-Zawahiri also accused Lebanon's leaders of following in the footsteps of Washington and its "agent Arab regimes".
