BAGHDAD, 16 December 2004 — Iraq’s interim defense minister accused neighbors Iran and Syria yesterday of aiding Al-Qaeda Islamist Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi and former agents of Saddam Hussein to promote a “terrorist” insurgency in Iraq.
Hazim Al-Shaalan poured scorn on Iran in a speech to US, British, Iraqi and other military officers and derided alleged links to Iran of Hussain Al-Shahristani, a senior figure in a Shiite bloc expected to do well in next month’s Iraqi election.
“Iran runs a major terrorist ring inside Iraq,” Shaalan said, repeating accusations frequently made by himself and his ally interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, a fellow secular Shiite who unveiled a rival electoral list yesterday.
“I have already said that this state (Iran) is the prime enemy of Iraq, an enemy of Iraq since before Islam, because it helped the enemies of the Arabs and humanity.”
“Syrian, Iranian and former Iraqi intelligence are cooperating with the Zarqawi group,” Shaalan said, referring to the Jordanian’s Al-Qaeda in Iraq group, which has claimed some of the bloodiest bombings and kidnappings since the war.
“We want democracy and they want the dictatorship of...clerical rule,” he said at the opening of two days of talks on the role of Iraq’s new National Guard security force.
Iran and Syria deny any links with Iraq’s guerrillas.
“It seems he (Shaalan) has a mission to say such things,” Iran’s Interior Minister Abdolvahed Mousavi-Lari told reporters.
“I have always thought his remarks were because he was young, inexperienced and immature. But now I believe he has been ordered by his masters to say such things,” he said.
Returning to the charge against Iran’s clerical leaders, Shaalan said: “They want to liquidate you. This black horde.”
Addressing Iraqi officers in the room, he said: “They shall not pass but over our dead bodies. I wish you success — we want more courage and sacrifice from you.”
