Al-Qaeda chief rejects UN as conflict mediator

Al Qaeda’s leader has rejected the notion of nation states and any United Nations role in arbitrating solutions to conflict - long the pillars of international order - in a document outlining how Muslims should run their affairs.

The statement by Ayman al-Zawahri, entitled “Supporting Islam” and posted by the jihadi militants’ publishing arm on an Islamist website, also calls for the re-establishment of the medieval Islamic Caliphate to unite Muslims. While the document’s proposals resembled the teachings of Osama bin Laden, the late founder of the Islamist militant group, Zawahri appeared intent on providing his own views on how Muslims should shape their public life.

He urged Muslims to use sharia (Islamic law) to resolve disputes and “refuse judgment by any other principles, beliefs and laws”, including the United Nations. The world body, he said, was controlled by members of its Security Council - the US, China, Russia, Britain and France.

Zawahri told Muslims to work to set up a caliphate that “does not recognise nation state or the borders imposed by the occupiers, but establishes a rightly guided caliphate following in the footsteps of the Prophet Mohammad.  “These are the objectives of the Document of Supporting Islam, and we call on all those who believe in them to call for them, support them and try to spread them in every way possible among the people of the nation,” he said.