AMMAN: An Iraqi aristocrat who fled Jordanian justice in the boot of a car is now back in Baghdad as a possible US choice to lead post-Saddam Iraq, and his return could prove a headache for Jordan.
Ahmad Chalabi, the scion of a wealthy Shia family, left for Syria in a hurry in 1989 after the collapse of the bank he founded shook Jordan’s political and financial system.
The controversial politician with close ties to Washington returned to Baghdad on Wednesday for the first time since going into exile as a schoolboy in 1958.
“Our problem does not stem from the fact that he is an Iraqi opposition member but that he is wanted in Jordan and convicted of a criminal offence and that is why we have serious reservations about Mr Chalabi,” Foreign Minister Marwan Muasher was quoted as saying this week.
A military court trying him in absentia convicted him of bank fraud and embezzlement and sentenced him to 22 years’ hard labour.
Before his fall from grace, Chalabi had been among Jordan’s most influential men, his power to grant credit to friends and power brokers drawing many to his door.
Chalabi says he was made a scapegoat for years of mismanagement and corruption throughout Jordan that triggered the dinar’s collapse and precipitated a major economic and political crisis in the country in 1989.
He accused Jordanian officials of framing him under pressure from Saddam whose slush funds built fortunes for many Jordanians acting as middlemen in deals from arms to candy bars.
Amman was the major conduit for supplies and armaments to Iraq during its 1980-1988 war with Iran and was among Saddam’s few supporters in the 1991 Gulf War.
Chalabi’s friends included former Crown Prince Hassan. His appearance at a London Iraqi opposition meeting last year embarrassed a country that publicly supported Iraq to appease a pro-Iraqi sentiment among Jordanians.
Chalabi as a future Iraqi leader with a grudge against the Jordanian ruling class could bode ill for a kingdom that backed the winning side in hopes of a share of the war spoils and a role in reconstruction.
But opportunistic Jordanian politicians are ready to put aside deep reservations over Chalabi should he emerge from the current struggle between the Pentagon and the State Department as Washington’s choice as new Iraqi leader.—Reuters
