Iraq has no proof to link Iran with Qaeda: Official

A top Iraqi official has said Baghdad has no evidence to link Iran with aiding the Al-Qaeda operations in his country though Tehran may be assisting extremist groups to fuel problems there.

"We don't have solid evidence that Iran is helping Al-Qaeda in Iraq. They are helping the Al-Mahdi. They are helping some of the extremist Shia groups in Iraq. But there is no evidence that Iran is helping Al-Qaeda or helping the insurgents in Iraq," Iraq's National Security Advisor Mowaffak al Rubaie said.

Al Rubaie also told the CNN's Late Edition on Sunday that people those who are afraid of the democracy in Iraq was funding extremism.

He was responding to a question whether Iraqi insurgency is flush with funds and is competent of sustaining itself.

"There is a missing piece of information on that report, which is the fund from some of the Arab states around Iraq. Those countries are afraid of our democracy.

And I wouldn't -- I'm not saying that these are the governments of these countries, but they are the businessmen.

"They are the Islamic movements in these countries, helping the insurgency to bring down the democracy in Iraq and tries to defeat the United States government -- or United States Army in Iraq," he said.

Refusing to name the countries, he said, "it's not one country. It's not two countries. It is more than that. This is a fight, or this is a war between the extremists and the moderates in the whole region.

If they lose, they lose in the whole region. If they win, God forbid, they will disrupt the whole region again," al Rubaie said.