Posted on 09/21/2005 12:02:09 PM PDT by jmc1969
AMMAN: Iraqi former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi and his former defence minister are targets of an Iraqi government smear campaign inspired by neighbouring Iran, a senior Allawi aide said today.
Ibrahim al-Janabi, deputy head of the National Accord Movement (Wifaq) headed by Allawi, said allegations against former defence minister Hazem Shaalan in connection with the disappearance of 1 billion dollars from his ministry were a fabrication designed to prevent secular leaders from returning to power.
''There are elements within the government that have strong ties with Iranian intelligence who seek to stir these issues,'' Janabi told Reuters in Amman. ''This attack we believe is Iranian-inspired but with Iraqi tools that implement it.'' Allawi, interim prime minister from June 2004 until an elected government took over in April, is a secular-minded Shi'ite politician believed to have ambitions to lead his country again. He criticised Iranian influence while in office and Shaalan once described Iran as Iraq's ''prime enemy''.
The government formed in April after parliamentary elections in January is dominated by Islamist Shi'ite parties that found refuge in Iran during Saddam Hussein's time.
Radhi al-Radhi, the head of Iraq's Committee on Public Integrity, said this week he had handed evidence against Shaalan to Iraq's central criminal court two months ago and expected a warrant for his arrest to be issued soon.
Shaalan, who is in Jordan, has denied any wrongdoing regarding arms procurement during his tenure.
Janabi, Wifaq's deputy leader, said the main reason behind the campaign against Allawi and Shaalan was their opposition to what he called Iranian meddling and subversion in Iraq.
''We expect the campaign to increase and to take the form of direct assassinations of figures who seek to consolidate the national programme away from foreign influences led by Iran.'' Janabi said investigators in the alleged corruption affair were all Shi'ite parties in the government with links to Iran.
''Iranian elements want to create a sectarian project in Iraq that leads to its partition,'' he said.
AHA! I knew it! I said at the time there was something fishy about this story!
Well that gets interesting.
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