KUWAIT, 2 November 2004 — Iraqi interim President Ghazi Al-Yawar criticized a plan to attack Fallujah in remarks published yesterday, as US forces prepared an assault on insurgents and militants in the western Iraq city.

Yawar, whose remarks to the Kuwaiti daily Al-Qabas contradicted views expressed by his prime minister in Baghdad, also accused Iran of meddling in Iraq’s internal affairs. He said he expected the outcome of today’s US presidential elections to have little impact on Washington’s Iraq policy.

“I completely disagree with those who see a need to decide the (Fallujah) matter through military action,” said Yawar, who ended a three-day visit to Kuwait yesterday.

“The coalition’s handling of this crisis is wrong. It’s like someone who fired bullets at his horse’s head just because a fly landed on it; the horse died and the fly went away,” Yawar said. “What’s needed is that the coalition forces continue dialogue so that the Iraqi armed forces will come, which will prompt those on the sidelines not to join the rebels ...”

Yawar contradicted interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi’s comments on Sunday - that his US-backed government was still offering an olive branch to Fallujah but its patience was running thin.

On the US elections, Yawar said he saw little difference between the two contenders as far as Iraq policy was concerned. “The United States is a country of institutions and the matter will not change the Iraq strategy much,” he said.

On Iraq’s elections, due in early 2005, Yawar said they would be held on time “unless there’s a technical recommendation from the international monitors that they can’t be held for technical reasons.”

He accused Iraq’s neighbor and former foe Iran of having a role in the deteriorating security situation in Iraq.

“Iran is playing a negative role in Iraq,” he said. “It is behind the assassination of more than 18 Iraqi intelligence officers and is also playing a negative role in southern Iraq.”

Yawar also said his talks in Kuwait did not touch on the issue of Iraq’s $16 billion debt to Kuwait.

Kuwait has agreed to cut Iraq’s debt but says the issue should be discussed with a permanent government in Baghdad.

Kuwait, invaded and occupied by Iraq in 1990, was the launch pad for last year’s US-led invasion of Iraq which removed President Saddam Hussein.

Later, Yawar arrived in Bahrain on the second leg of a Gulf tour that will also take him to the United Arab Emirates, the official BNA news agency reported.