- WASHINGTON -- The United
States and the new Iraqi government were mired in disagreement last night
over the fate of Saddam Hussein after George Bush said Iraqi demands for
immediate custody of the former dictator could not be met until it was
certain the new regime had the ability to keep him in jail.
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- Mr Bush also jumped to the defence of his vice-president,
Dick Cheney, who insisted, despite the deep scepticism of the intelligence
community, that Saddam had had close links to al-Qaida.
-
- As the differences on Saddam grew starker, Iraq's interim
prime minister, Ayad Allawi, backpedalled from remarks he made late on
Monday, when he said the captured leader would be in Iraqi custody within
a fortnight.
-
- In a television interview with al-Jazeera he had said
that "the transfer of Saddam Hussein and the others will take place
within two weeks you can consider this as an official confirmation",
with a criminal trial due to take place "as soon as possible"
after that.
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- But yesterday he told CNN: "We definitely will be
trying our best to get custody of Saddam and the other criminals."
In any case, said Salem Chalabi, the Iraqi official responsible for putting
members of the former regime on trial, Iraq would probably charge Saddam
and other high-ranking prisoners in the next two weeks, no matter whose
custody they were in.
-
- Mr Bush, in a press conference at the White House with
the Afghan leader, Hamid Karzai, cast doubt on the Iraqis' ability to keep
Saddam behind bars. "It's a legitimate question to ask of the interim
government, 'How are you going to make sure he stays in jail?' When we
get the right answer we'll all be satisfied."
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- Mr Bush was implacable when questioned about Mr Cheney's
remarks, to a conservative thinktank in Florida, that Saddam was "a
patron of terrorism" who had "long-established ties with al-Qaida".
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- The president said the proof of the link was Abu Musab
al-Zarqawi, the suspected al-Qaida militant who has been linked to many
attacks in postwar Iraq. "Zarqawi's the best evidence of connection
to al-Qaida affiliates," he said.
-
- Saddam, he added, "was affiliated to terrorism -
to [Palestinian militant] Abu Nidal; the paying of families of suicide
bombers".
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- Events around Iraq yesterday did nothing to suggest that
improved security could be expected soon. A succession of explosions blamed
on sabotage ripped through key oil installations in the north and south
of the country, badly hindering the crude exports intended to finance Iraqi
reconstruction. A car bomb and an ambush in Baghdad left several civilians
dead meanwhile, a day after a bomb destroyed a convoy of foreigners, killing
at least 13 people.
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- The Iraqi president, Ghazi al-Yawer, sought to paint
an upbeat future. Those responsible for killings could return to the fold
if they abandoned violence, he said, adding that if the militant Shia leader
Moqtada al-Sadr stuck to his plan to start a political party, he could
join the political process. President Bush said it was up to the Iraqis
to deal with Mr Sadr as they saw fit.
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- Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited
2004 http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1239682,00.html
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