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Iran seeks to rig Iraq elections: Iraqi Minister |
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Thursday, 20 January 2005 |
Iran Focus
 Baghdad, Jan. 20 – Iraq's Minister for Provincial Affairs accused Iran of spreading its "sphere of influence" throughout Iraq, in preparation for the January 30th elections.
"Many Iranians are producing fake Iraqi identity cards to be able to take part in the elections", Wa'el Abdol-Latif said, speaking to the London-based Al-Sharq Al-Awsat (Middle East) daily yesterday.
In particular Abdol-Latif warned that the Iranian regime was becoming very influential in Basra.
But he also stated that the Iranian regime was not just concentrating its influence in Basra, rather it was "sending surrogates all over Iraq, even reaching Falluja".
Abdol-Latif added that a number of Iraqi political parties were receiving backing from the Iranian regime.
"Due to the security situation and non-existent border controls neighboring countries have been able to spread their domination in Iraq, at the same time supporting certain Iraqi groups", he said. |
