Iraqi PM warns against foreign 'conspiracies'

Iraq’s beleaguered prime minister Nouri al-Maliki today warned against “conspiracies” in foreign capitals against his government.

He called on his military chiefs to wield “iron fists” against those who would “lay the red carpet” for outside interference in Iraq.

The toughly-worded speech, at a conference of Iraqi army division commanders, did not specify which Iraqis or foreigners Maliki fears may be working to oust him, but his largely ineffectual, year-old leadership has been under criticism both at home and abroad, including in the US Congress.

Former prime minister Ayad Allawi, a parliament member and secular Shiite Muslim, is believed gathering Iraqi political support to try to replace Maliki, whom he regards as a sectarian Shiite Islamist.

Allawi is believed to have the support of Egypt, whose leaders, like those in some other Sunni Muslim-dominated Arab lands, have expressed concern about the rise of Shiite political power in Iraq.

American critics, meantime, see Maliki as too weak to forge a united Iraq; Shiite Iran is deepening its involvement in Iraq, including supporting its Shiite militias, whose presence weakens the central government; and Turkey, criticising Baghdad’s weakness, is threatening to strike militarily into northern Iraq to crush Turkish Kurdish rebels harboured there.

“There won’t be any chance for conspiracies in this or that capital of Arab countries,” Maliki told the division commanders.

“I feel astonished when I hear some politicians under the shadow of democracy talking frankly saying that there is nothing wrong with Arab and Islamic countries interfering in Iraq’s affairs,” the prime minister said.

In Cairo, meanwhile, Iraq’s Sunni vice president, often at odds with Maliki, urged the region’s Arab leaders not to let Iraq’s future be decided by non-Arabs - a clear reference to Iran and the United States.

“Iraq’s future should not be left to be defined by foreigners,” said Tariq al-Hashemi, who held talks with Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak and Arab League chief Amr Moussa.

“There should an Arab stance before it’s too late,” he said.

His comments reflected Sunni fears of an Iraq dominated by the US-backed Shiite majority in which Sunnis would be sidelined, and of Iran’s growing hold over Iraqi Shiites.