‘Iran meddling in Iraq’; Vote on time urged to curb violence

By: Anjum Kermani

PARIS, France: US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld accused Iran of sending money and arms into neighboring Iraq to try to influence the outcome of elections there in January as Ayatullah Muhammad Bahr-ul-Uloum said Iraqi elections should be held on time because they could help curb violence, even if some areas cannot take part.

Iran has a big interest in what happens in Iraq. But it is engaged in “a lot of meddling,” Rumsfeld said in a talk at the Council on Foreign Relations, a non-partisan foreign policy group in London, AFP reported.

“They clearly want to affect the outcome of the election, and they are aggressively trying to do that,” he said. “They're sending money in. They're sending weapons in. And they're notably unhelpful.”

Rumsfeld also said Iran had a “funny” relationship with Al-Qaeda.

Ayatullah Bahr-ul-Uloum said in an interview delaying the vote might suggest that Iraq's interim government wanted to hold on to power.

He said other clerics in Holy Najaf did not want a delay in the vote. “There is nobody in Najaf who sees a delay,” said Bahr-ul-Uloum, who held talks with Ayatullah Ali As-Sistani last week.

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