Jordan roundly condemned yesterday Ahmad Chalabi, leader of the Iraqi National Congress who is seeking a key role in post-war Iraq, saying he was a divisive figure with no credibility.
Foreign Minister Marwan al-Muasher predicted that Chalabi, who returned to Baghdad after the war with the backing of the Pentagon after decades in exile, would not be the choice of the Iraqi people to head a post-Saddam government.
"Ahmad Chalabi is a divisive character," he said in an interview on NBC's Meet the Press. "I think if the Iraqis are given a free choice, he would not emerge as the leader of Iraq.
If he is pushed as the leader of Iraq, he will be seen as a US agent." Jordan borders Iraq and has worked with Washington to try to bring peace to the region.
In a separate interview on CNN, King Abdullah also questioned Chalabi's credibility.
"I would imagine that you would want somebody who suffered alongside the Iraqi people. This particular gentleman I think left Iraq when he was 11 or 7, what contact does he have with the people on the street?" King Abdullah asked.
Al-Muasher said Jordan has discussed with the Bush administration its concern that Iraq's new government may be seen as a puppet of Washington, which would fuel anti-American resentment and give ammunition to radicals in the region.
Jordanian courts convicted Chalabi in absentia in 1992 on fraud and embezzlement charges after the 1989 failure of the Bank of Petra which he founded and ran, sentenced him to 22 years in prison.
In a separate CNN interview, Chalabi rejected reports in the US media that he was seen in Baghdad as a US puppet and that there was resentment against him among Iraqis who stayed in their country.
In a US television interviews yesterday, Chalabi stressed the breadth of his intelligence network within Iraq noting he had information on the recent whereabouts of Saddam Hussein and his two sons, Uday and Qusay, and on the existence of weapons of mass destruction. He said he had information that Saddam Hussein and his sons were alive - (Reuters)