Iraqi lawmaker accuses Gulf states of financing Baathists

Nov 16, 2009, 6:42 GMT

Baghdad - An Iraqi lawmaker and former security advisor to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has accused Gulf states of financing Baathist insurgents, in an interview with Baghdad's al-Sabah newspaper Monday.

'Some officials in Gulf countries provide funds to these movements,' Mowaffaq Al-Rubaie said. 'We will disclose their names if they do not stop.'

Al-Rubaie said Iraqi security agencies and the Central Bank were working in cooperation with regional and international experts 'to dry up support for terrorists and the Baathists.'

A special division in the Central Bank would target money laundering, money transfers for the support of terrorism, drug money, and donations 'from regional and international countries to certain political movements to influence the elections or promote agendas in the country,' he said.

Another lawmaker, Mohammed Naji, accused financiers of funneling 'hundreds of millions of dollars in support of terrorism' to Iraqi businessmen and politicians.

'Funds for the support of terrorism enter Iraq through deposits to commercial accounts set up especially for the purpose,' Naji told al-Sabah.

Donors to insurgent groups often disguise their donations as charitable donations or as funding for non-governmental organisations, Naji said, noting that insurgent groups also finance themselves through 'extortion, kidnapping, robbery and deposits to commercial accounts.'

Still more comes from 'the sale of drugs in Pakistan and Afghanistan,' Naji said.

After deadly bombings in August and October in central Baghdad which left 255 people dead and badly damaged several ministries al- Maliki accused Syria of not doing enough to stop Iraqi Baathists now in Damascus from financing and plotting attacks in Iraq.

The accusations led Syria and Iraq to withdraw their respective ambassadors to the other.

Al-Rubaie last week broadened the accusations to include Gulf countries, saying Iraqi authorities had submitted to the United Nations 'thousands of pages of documents' he said 'proved' regional involvement in the financing of attacks in Iraq, in support of the country's request for an international investigation into the bombings.