Iran Extends Condolences over Death of Iraq’s Chalabi
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister for Arab and African Affairs Hossein Amir Abdollahian in a message offered his condolences over the death of Iraqi politician Ahmad Chalabi.
In his Tuesday message, Amir Abdollahian praised the prominent role Chalabi played in Iraq’s political and economic developments.
Having recognized the enemy’s plots, Chalabi whole-heartedly devoted his political struggles to the independence and national unity of Iraq, the Iranian official noted.
Amir Abdollahian also wished the deceased divine mercy and forgiveness.
Chalabi, the smooth-talking Iraqi politician who played a role in persuading the United States to wage the 2003 war against Iraq, died on Tuesday of a heart attack, state television and two parliamentarians said.
Haitham al-Jabouri, secretary of parliament's financial panel, which Chalabi had chaired, said attendants had found him dead in his bed in his Baghdad home.
Chalabi was widely seen as the man who helped push the United States into invading Iraq in 2003 with information about Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction program that was eventually discredited.
After Saddam's fall, Chalabi returned from exile in Britain and the United States. At one point his name was floated as a candidate for prime minister but he never managed to rise to the top of Iraq's politics.
