There have been media reports that the Turkish government obtained approval of the United States which has occupied Iraq including the Kurd region for launching its armed offensive in northern Iraq (Kurdistan).

The Ameer of Hizb ut-Tahrir is the Alim, Sheikh Ata Abu Rashta (full name Sheikh Abu Yasin Ata ibn Khalil ibn Ahmad ibn Abdul Qadir al-Khatib Abu Rashta). He is an Islamic jurist, scholar and writer.

Sheikh Ata Abu Rashta was born into an observant Islamic family in 1943 in the small village of Ra'na in the Hebron area of the Palestinian territories. He observed first-hand the Israeli destruction of Ra'na in 1948 and thereafter moved with his family to a refugee camp near Hebron.

His primary and middle education was completed at the refugee camp. He subsequently obtained his first certificate of secondary education in 1960 from the Al Hussein Bin Ali school in Hebron and later completed his general secondary certificate at the Ibrahimiya school in Jerusalem in 1961. Sheikh Ata Abu Rashta then joined the Faculty of Engineering at Cairo University in Egypt and graduated in civil engineering in 1966. After graduating, Sheikh Ata Abu Rashta worked in a number of Arab countries as a civil engineer and wrote a book concerning the calculation of quantities in relation to the construction of buildings and roads.

Sheikh Ata Abu Rashta joined Hizb ut-Tahrir in the mid-1950s and subsequently carried out party activism throughout the Arab world. He worked closely with Sheikh Taqiuddin an-Nabhani, the founder of Hizb ut-Tahrir and Sheikh Abdul Qadeem Zallum who became the leader of Hizb ut-Tahrir following Sheikh Nabhani's death in 1977. In the 1980s he was a leading member of Hizb ut-Tahrir in Jordan and was appointed as Hizb ut-Tahrir's official spokesperson.

Sheikh Ata Abu Rashta played a prominent role in Jordan during the Persian Gulf War when he convened press conferences, lectures and debates at public venues throughout the country. He debated the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait at the Jerusalem Mosque in Amman at which he delivered a lecture entitled The Neo-Crusader Assault on the Arabian Peninsula and the Gulf. He was regularly detained by the Jordanian authorities.

In 1994, in an interview, Sheikh Ata Abu Rashta said, "The establishment of the Caliphate is now a general demand among Muslims, who yearn for this: the call for Islamic government (the Caliphate) is widespread in Egypt, Syria, Turkey, Pakistan, Algeria and so on. Before Hizb al-Tahrir launched its careeer the subject of the Caliphate was unheard of. However, the party has succeeded in establishing its intellectual leadership, and now everyone has confidence in its ideas, and talks about it: this is clear from the media worldwide".

Abu Rashta became the global leader of Hizb ut-Tahrir on 13th April 2003 following the death of Sheikh Abdul Qadeem Zallum.

Since assuming the leadership of Hizb ut-Tahrir, has spoken at conferences across the world including Indonesia, Pakistan and Yemen.

His writings include Tayseer fi usool at-tafseer surah al-baqarah (2007), Economic crises - the reality and the perspective of Islam and Tayseer al Wusool min al-Usool.

The whole world is a suitable location for the Islamic call. But since the people in the Muslim countries have already embraced Islam, it is necessary that the call start there. The Arab countries are the most suitable location to start carrying the call because these countries, which constitute part of the Muslim world, are inhabited by people who speak the Arabic language, which is the language of the Qur'an and Hadith, and is an essential part of Islam and a basic element of the Islamic culture. Hizb ut-Tahrir began and started to carry the Islamic call within some of the Arab countries. It then proceeded to expand the delivery of the Islamic call naturally until it began to function in many Arab countries and also in non-Arab Muslim countries as well. Hizb ut-Tahrir seeks the re-establishment of the Islamic Khilafah "Caliphate" (Caliphate) in the Islamic World.

Hizb ut-Tahrir is a political party whose ideology is Islam. The party works throughout the Islamic world to resume the Islamic way of life by re-establishing the Islamic Khilafah "Caliphate" (Caliphate). The party adheres to the Islamic Shari'ah in all aspects of its work, and takes its methodology from that of the Prophet Muhammad that he used to establish the first Islamic State in Madinah. The Prophet Muhammad limited his struggle for the establishment of the Islamic State to the intellectual and political domains. Hence the party considers violence or armed struggle against the regime a violation of the Islamic Shari'ah. 

The Party has been clear, open and challenging in the carrying of its thoughts and in confronting the false thoughts and political parties, both in its struggle against the colonialists and in its struggle against the corrupt Muslim rulers - this has exposed it to severe harm committed by the rulers against it; such as imprisonment, torture, deportation, pursuit, attacking members livelihoods, impairment of interests, banning from travelling and murder. The oppressive rulers in Iraq, Syria, Libya, Uzbekistan and others have killed dozens of its members. The prisons of Jordan, Syria, Iraq, Turkey, Egypt, Libya and Tunisia are full of its members. Though Hizb ut-Tahrir committed itself to be open, clear and challengingly in its call, it restricted itself to political actions alone and did not exceed them by resorting to material actions against the rulers or against those who opposed its call, following the example of the Messenger of Allah who restricted himself in Makkah solely to the call and he did not carry out any material actions until he had migrated to Madinah.