Former Iraqi PM Abdul Mahdi offers condolences over Houthi prime minister’s killing

BAGHDAD — Former Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi on Saturday extended condolences to Houthi leader Abdul-Malik Badr Al-Din Al-Houthi after Yemeni Prime Minister Ahmed al-Rahawi was killed in an Israeli airstrike on Sanaa.

In his statement, Abdul Mahdi expressed sympathy to what he called “the courageous Yemeni leadership, the dear Yemeni people, and the Islamic nation” over the deaths of al-Rahawi “along with a group of ministers and citizens, in the cowardly operation carried out by the Zionist entity.”

He invoked a saying attributed to late Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah: “… We are never defeated—when we achieve victory, we are victorious, and when we are martyred, we are victorious.” He ended with the Quranic verse: “Indeed, we belong to Allah, and indeed to Him we shall return.”

Earlier Saturday, the Islamic Dawa Party, led by Nouri al-Maliki, also condemned the assassination, calling it “a blatant violation of international laws and norms.”

Statement from former Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi :

Honorable Sayyed Abdul-Malik Badr Al-Din Al-Houthi, may God protect him,

Peace, mercy, and blessings of Allah be upon you,

I extend my condolences to you, the courageous Yemeni leadership, the dear Yemeni people, and the Islamic nation on the martyrdom of the Prime Minister, brother Ahmed Al-Rahawi, along with a group of ministers and citizens, in the cowardly operation carried out by the Zionist entity. I pray to the Almighty to grant the martyrs eternal rest in His vast gardens and to grant you and all of us patience and solace.

I recall the words of the martyr of the nation, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, may God’s pleasure be upon him, when he said:
“One of the wonders of the faith culture is how it changes equations. The utmost our enemy can do is kill us, and the utmost we can aspire to is to be killed in the path of Allah Almighty. The faith-based equation transforms the enemy’s greatest point of strength into our greatest point of strength. Therefore, we are never defeated—when we achieve victory, we are victorious, and when we are martyred, we are victorious.”

Indeed, we belong to Allah, and indeed to Him we shall return.