Saddam
in Iraq, Opposition Leader Says
April 21, 2003 08:52 AM EDT
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Chalabi, who left Iraq in 1958 and returned to Baghdad last week with U.S. help, has been touted by some in Washington as a possible political leader in a new Iraqi government. But in the BBC interview, Chalabi repeated claims that he has no political ambitions in Iraq. His situation is complicated by legal troubles in neighboring Jordan. In 1992, he was convicted in absentia by a Jordanian court of embezzlement, fraud and breach of trust after a bank he ran collapsed with about $300 million in missing deposits; he was sentenced to 22 years in prison. Chalabi, who left Jordan before the case went to trial, denies the charges, saying Saddam was behind them. Chalabi also told the BBC that the United Nations should not play a major role in postwar Iraq, because Iraqis see it as having opposed military action to dislodge Saddam. The United Nations can and deserves only a limited role," he said. "It has little credibility in Iraq and the people of Iraq view it as a de facto ally of Saddam." However, British Foreign Office minister Mike O'Brien said Monday that the UN should be involved in helping Iraq move toward a democracy. "I don't think they want to be involved in any of the security areas," he told the BBC. "But in terms of looking at the way in which the process of democratization takes place, the elections, the running of those ... I hope they will have a voice and an influence." O'Brien said he hoped Syria, which the United States has accused of sponsoring terrorism and harboring remnants of Saddam's regime, would not hinder Iraq's transition to democracy. He said Syrian President Bashar Assad assured him that Damascus had tried to prevent volunteers from crossing to help fight U.S. troops, but added those efforts were not successful. "Many of the volunteers
have gone across and have been involved in action against British and U.S.
soldiers," he said. "We very much regret that and I've made that clear
to President Assad."
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