Allawi visit to Riyadh surrounded with controversy

A visit by the former Iraqi prime minister and head of the secular al-Iraqiya alliance, Iyad Allawi, to the oil-rich Saudi Arabia has provoked fierce controversy in his home country.

The Saturday visit by one of Iraq’s most prominent candidates in next month’s parliamentary election comes amid fears that Riyadh would incite sectarian violence in Iraq, with the Saudis being under suspicion of funding armed groups in Iraq, Arab-language Nahrainnet news website reported.

Allawi’s well-publicized visit to Riyadh, where he met with Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz and Saudi Intelligence chief Prince Meqrin bin Abdul Aziz has raised eyebrows, especially as Saudi politicians have maintained low-level contact with Iraqi counterparts since the 2003 US-led invasion.

The meeting comes while Saudi King Abdullah has widely avoided meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in recent years.

Nahrainnet, quoting unnamed Saudi officials, reported that Allawi’s high-level meetings in Riyadh could prove to be “dangerous” for Iraq and the Shias during and after the elections.

Saudi authorities have told Allawi that they have allocated “billions of dollars to buy votes in Iraq’s upcoming elections” with hat aim of securing parliamentary seats for “Liberals” and “atheists,” Nahrainnet quoted the officials as saying.

Iraq’s nationwide parliamentary elections in March, the first since 2003 in a fully sovereign Iraq, is seen as crucial to stability of the war-battered country.