Saddam Hussein’s former deputy has resurfaced making a call for an anti-Iranian crusade a year after he was supposedly killed in Iraq.

Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, the most prominent member of Saddam’s Baathist regime to escape death or captivity following the invasion of 2003, featured in a video sent to the Saudi Arabia-owned Al-Arabiya television channel.

He read out a statement to the camera while wearing military uniform and his characteristic red, bushy moustache, making identification instant.

He made no reference to Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil), despite widespread and credible reports that his own militia, known as the Naqshabandi Army, helped the group as it swept through western Iraq in 2014.

Instead he returned to a theme of previous broadcasts - attacking the rise of Iran and demanding an alliance against Iraq’s neighbour and frequent rival.

He said America would be “held responsible” if Iraq were not rescued from Iran’s “hegemony”. Remarkably, he specifically called for Arab states to join a Saudi Arabia-led coalition against it.