Jordan's King Abdullah II and Iraq's interim president on Wednesday accused Iran of trying to influence Iraq's Jan. 30 elections.
Abdullah told The Washington Post in an interview published Wednesday that more than 1 million Iranians have crossed the border into Iraq, many to vote, and added they were being encouraged by the Iranian authorities.
The Jordanian monarch also accused the Iranians of paying salaries and providing welfare to unemployed Iraqis to promote pro-Iranian public sentiment. "It is in Iran's vested interest to have an Islamic republic of Iraq ... and therefore the involvement you're getting by the Iranians is to achieve a government that is very pro-Iran," Abdullah told the daily.
He noted the United States had communicated its concern to Iran through third parties, although he predicted a showdown. "There's going to be some sort of clash at one point or another," he projected.
"Unfortunately, time is proving, and the situation is proving, beyond any doubt that Iran has very obvious interference in our business," Iraqi interim President Ghazi al-Yawer, a Sunni, said in an interview with Washington Post editors and reporters.
