Following are excerpts from an interview with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki, which aired on Al-Manar TV on September 28, 2011:

Nuri Al-Maliki: I believe that there are many old plans for the region that were postponed, and it appears that the time has come for their implementation. The Sykes-Picot Agreement divided us into states, and the premeditated Arab Spring, which is backed by [foreign forces], is intended to divide these states into mini-states, so that the only effective large country in the region would be Israel.

It appears, however, that even Israel has sensed that the change that is taking place is not in its own interests. Even Israel, which hopes that the Arab and Islamic fabric in this region is torn, has begun to sense… I say that whether they sense it or not, it is not in their best interest either.

In the past, they might have thought that they could devour parts of this or that country, but today, everybody is saying that regime change – especially in Syria – does not serve anyone's interests.

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