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Friday, December 27, 2024  
24 Jumada Al-Akhirah 1446  

Iraq issues veiled threat to 'plotting' neighbours

Iraq issues veiled threat to 'plotting' neighboursA senior Iraqi security official issued a veiled threat on Tuesday to neighbouring countries whom he accused of sponsoring insurgents who carry out deadly attacks.
"We don't want to send booby-trapped cars for the ones that are sent to us. We are capable of that but this is not the nature of the new Iraq," national security advisor Muwafaq al-Rubaie told reporters in neighbouring Kuwait.
"Neighbours are sending death vehicles, terrorists, financial and logistical support and also plotting," he said, declining to point the finger at any particular country.
"We will give them more time to reconsider their calculations ... We don't want to open fire on any country ... but Iraq's patience has a limit," he said on the sidelines of an Iraq donors' conference.
A senior official from a neighbouring country will visit Iraq in the next few weeks to discuss a political solution, Rubaie added without elaborating.
Iraq's government has repeatedly accused neighbours Jordan and Saudi Arabia of not doing enough to stop the flow of militants wishing to join the insurgency still plaguing Iraq.
The government's US backers have in turn accused Iran and its regional ally Syria of seeking to torpedo Western ambitions for the new Iraq.
Rubaie warned that terrorism in Iraq would spread to neighbouring countries if left unchecked.
"Even if neighbouring countries build fences of concrete, terrorists will move there. It's a cancer that will spread all over the region if it is left to grow in Iraq," he said.

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2006