Allawi aide says Iran behind "smear campaign": (re: 1 bln $ scandal)

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Allawi aide says Iran behind "smear campaign":

AMMAN: Iraqi former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi and his former defence minister are targets of an Iraqi government smear campaign inspired by neighbouring Iran, a senior Allawi aide said today.

Ibrahim al-Janabi, deputy head of the National Accord Movement (Wifaq) headed by Allawi, said allegations against former defence minister Hazem Shaalan in connection with the disappearance of 1 billion dollars from his ministry were a fabrication designed to prevent secular leaders from returning to power.

''There are elements within the government that have strong ties with Iranian intelligence who seek to stir these issues,'' Janabi told Reuters in Amman. ''This attack we believe is Iranian-inspired but with Iraqi tools that implement it.'' Allawi, interim prime minister from June 2004 until an elected government took over in April, is a secular-minded Shi'ite politician believed to have ambitions to lead his country again. He criticised Iranian influence while in office and Shaalan once described Iran as Iraq's ''prime enemy''.

The government formed in April after parliamentary elections in January is dominated by Islamist Shi'ite parties that found refuge in Iran during Saddam Hussein's time.