Rumsfeld says no Iranian-style government for Iraq

Rumsfeld says no Iranian-style government for Iraq
Last Updated Fri, 25 Apr 2003 12:07:36

WASHINGTON - There will be no Iranian-style theocratic government in Iraq, U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said on Thursday.

"How would we feel about an Iranian-type government with a few clerics running everything in the country? The answer is … I just don't see how that's going to happen," he said.

But the United States doesn't want to impose a government on Iraq, U.S. President George Bush insisted.

"Iraq must be democratic, and as new Iraqi leaders emerge we will work with them," Bush told factory workers in Ohio.

Rumsfeld's and Bush's remarks come after several days of anti-American protests in Iraq.

At the same time, Shia Muslim clerics have stepped in to fill some of the power vacuum in the country following the collapse.

While the former regime of Saddam Hussein was largely secular, Saddam and most of his inner circle were of the Sunni branch of Islam.

The Shia were largely oppressed, even though they make up about 60 per cent of Iraq's population.

Iran had a secular revolution in the late 1970s which ousted the U.S.-backed Shah, then saw Shia clerics take power.

U.S. officials have accused Iran of meddling in the Shia-dominant areas of Iraq and attempting to promote anti-American sentiment.

Iran has denied the charge.

Written by CBC News Online staff