CAIRO (AFP), October 2, 2004 - Israel has taken advantage of last year's US-led invasion of Iraq to deploy large numbers of agents in the Kurdish north to spy on neighbouring Iran and Syria, a leading Egyptian MP charged Saturday.

"Israel is present in force in northern Iraq and is spying on Iran and Syria," the chairman of the parliamentary foreign affairs committee, Mustafa Feki, told state television.

Challenged about a recent denial by Iraq's US-backed premier, Iyad Allawi, of any Israeli presence in Kurdish areas, Feki retorted: "They can deny it all they like but it's the reality."

During a Kurdish rebellion that was brutally suppressed by Baghdad in 1975, Israel maintained a significant presence in rebel-held areas.

Feki, who is a leading member of the ruling National Democratic Party of President Hosni Mubarak, added that the situation in Iraq is getting worse, with the country now "a centre for everyone who wants to fight American troops".

"The situation in the region does not augur well, after Palestine came Iraq and now there's Darfur ... the future is bleak."


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