Jordan king warns against forming Shia govt in Iraq

By: Mohamed Ali

WASHINGTON: Jordanian king Abdullah II and Iraqi president Ghazi Al-Yawar said creation of an Islamic government in Iraq would dramatically shift the geopolitical balance between Shia and Sunni Muslims in the Middle East.

Iran is trying to influence the Iraqi elections set for January 30 by coaching candidates, sending thousands of Iranians into Iraq to vote and pouring in lots of money, Abdullah and Yawar told The Washington Post in interviews published Wednesday.

“It is in Iran's vested interest to have an Islamic republic of Iraq ... and therefore the involvement you're getting by the Iranians is to achieve a government that is very pro-Iran,” King Abdullah II said.

Al-Yawar said: “Unfortunately, time is proving, and the situation is proving, beyond any doubt that Iran has very obvious interference in our business - a lot of money, a lot of intelligence activities and almost interfering daily ... especially in the southeast side of Iraq.”

Both leaders were in Washington and held meetings with US President George W. Bush on Monday.

The Jordanian monarch said the Iranian government had encouraged more than one million Iranians to cross into Iraq, many with the objective of voting in the upcoming elections.

The king also said Iran was providing salaries and welfare to unemployed Iraqis to build pro-Iranian public sentiment. Some Iranians, he added, have been trained by Iran's Revolutionary Guards and are members of militias that could fuel trouble in Iraq after the election.

He warned that if a pro-Iranian government were elected in Iraq, a new “crescent” of dominant Shia movements or governments could emerge stretching from Iran to Iraq, Syria and Lebanon, altering the traditional balance of power between the two main Islamic sects, Shias and Sunnis, and posing new challenges to US interests and allies.

“If Iraq goes Islamic republic, then, yes, we've opened ourselves to a whole set of new problems that will not be limited to the borders of Iraq,” said Abdullah.

“I'm looking at the glass half-full, and let's hope that's not the case. But strategic planners around the world have got to be aware that is a possibility,” he added.

Iran, Iraq, Bahrain, Azerbaijan and some other states in the world have Shia majorities.

Abdullah said the creation of a new Shia crescent would particularly destabilize Gulf countries with Shia populations. “Even Saudi Arabia is not immune from this. It would be a major problem. And then that would propel the possibility of a Shia-Sunni conflict even more, as you're taking it out of the borders of Iraq,” the king said.

Iran has faced charges in the past of meddling in Iraq, but with the election approaching, Iraqi, US and Arab officials have begun to make specific accusations and issue warnings about the potential impact.

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