Iraq's defence minister Hazem al-Shaalan said that neighbouring Iran remains his country's "first enemy" in an interview with the Washington Post published Monday."I've seen clear interference in Iraqi issues by Iran," the minister said in the interview in Baghdad. "Iran interferes in order to kill democracy."
The two neighbours fought a protracted war from 1980 to 1988 that left hundreds of thousands of dead.
Shaalan accused Iran of taking over some Iraqi border posts and sending spies and saboteurs into Iraq. He said former fighters in Afghanistan had been helped by Iran to get into Iraq.
He said a Sudanese man with Iranian intelligence contacts was detained in April carrying a "very powerful poison". The man was reportedly preparing to poison the water supply in Diwaniyah, a city 160 kilometers (100 miles) south of Baghdad.
Shaalan said Iran was supporting "terrorism and bringing enemies into Iraq" and that two other people working with Iranian intelligence had been detained in northeast Iraq three weeks ago.
Despite lingering suspicions on both sides of the Iranian-Iraqi frontier, the interim Iraqi government has talked of the possibility of establishing diplomatic ties with its neighbour.
Shaalan sent a strong warning to Iran, however. "We can send the death to Teheran's streets, like they do to us. But we can't do it if we are a democracy. But if my people say do it now, I will do it."
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