Ammar Karim | AFP ARABNEWS
Saturday 10 November 2012
BAGHDAD: Iraq canceled a $4.2 billion (3.3 billion euro) weapons package with Russia on Saturday citing graft concerns, torpedoing a deal that would have made Moscow Iraq’s biggest arms supplier after the US.
Cancellation of the deal, which had been announced when Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki led a delegation to Russia last month, is a setback for Moscow’s attempts to firm up its slipping foothold in the Middle East and also throws into doubt efforts by Iraq to equip its armed forces.
“The deal was canceled,” Maliki’s spokesman Ali Mussawi said.
“When Maliki returned from his trip to Russia, he had some suspicions of corruption, so he decided to review the whole deal… There is an investigation going on, on this.”
Mussawi declined to say who specifically was being investigated, or if Iraq would begin new negotiations with Moscow.
He also did not say exactly when the final decision was made to stop the deal.
http://www.arabnews.com/iraq-cancels-42-bn-russia-arms-deal-over-graft-concerns