| Submit your comments on this article |
| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Who Asked Tehran to Help in Iraq? |
| 2004-04-19 |
| Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi announced after a 14 April cabinet meeting that the United States had requested Iranian assistance in calming the current unrest in Iraq, AFP and Al-Jazeera television reported. Kharrazi said Tehran would help and added that the United States is complicating the situation there. The Foreign Ministry’s director-general for Persian Gulf affairs, Hussein Sadeqi, arrived in Baghdad on 14 April, the Iranian Labor News Agency (ILNA) reported. An anonymous "senior State Department official" said on 14 April that the United Kingdom invited the delegation of Iranian officials to visit Iraq in an effort to reduce tensions there, AFP reported. "Obviously, we did not object," the source added, going on to say that Washington did not ask London to invite the Iranians. "Since Iran does have some influence with the Shi’a community, we hope they would make clear that they are not in any way supporting violence or confrontation and that, in fact, they are supporting the authority of the central government," the source said. U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher also denied that Washington asked for Iranian mediation, but he did acknowledge the recent dispatch of messages to Tehran, AFP reported. "Our intervention is not based on the U.S. request," Iranian presidential adviser Mohammad Shariati said in a 14 April interview with Al-Jazeera. He went on to explain Tehran’s reasons for acting at this time and in such a public fashion. "We wanted the world to know our role in solving the problems," Shariati said. "America had prevented us from doing so. Britain was more understanding of the peaceful Iranian role in solving the problems. Now it [the United States] has dropped its objection." Shariati said Iran does not want to interfere in Iraqi affairs, but it "must not leave Iraq and its people alone in their ordeal.... Iran believes the U.S. behavior is wrong." While in Baghdad, Sadeqi held talks with a number of Iraqi political figures, state radio reported on 15 April. Among the officials that Sadeqi met were Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq’s (SCIRI) Abd-al-Aziz al-Hakim, Iraqi Governing Council (IGC) President Mas’ud Barzani, Oil Minister Ibrahim Bahr-al-Ulum, IGC member Jalal Talabani, and Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari. The Iranian delegation also met with Ahmad Chalabi, the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) reported on 17 April. Nevertheless, the exact role played by Sadeqi and his colleagues remains somewhat unclear. Adnan Ali, a member of the Al-Da’wah al-Islamiya party, said in a 15 April interview with Egyptian radio, "The Iranian delegation led by Mr. Sadeqi had a significant effect during talks with Shi’a clerics and personalities as well as with the office of Seyyed Muqtada [al-Sadr]. I have recently met Mr. Sadeqi, and he assured me that the Islamic Republic seeks to calm the situation to avoid any dissension [among Iraqi factions] under occupation." But neither the American nor the Iranian side was so forthcoming. CPA spokesman Dan Senor said on 16 March, "It is our position that there is no role for the Iranians to play middleman here in discussions between us and Sadr," RFE/RL reported. "There is no role for the Iranians, from our perspective, in the Sadr situation. And, in fact, we believe that the issue with Sadr and his militia should be resolved by Iraqis, not Iranians." Iranian Foreign Minister Kharrazi sounded a similar note on 16 April. He asked in a statement faxed to IRNA, "How can one mediate between the Iraqi people and the occupiers?" The Iranian diplomats ended their visit on 17 April without visiting Al-Najaf or Muqtada al-Sadr, IRNA reported. This is reportedly because the Iraqi cleric refused to meet with the Iranians, the Shi’a news agency reported. |
| Posted by:Mike Sylwester |
| #1 The Iranian diplomats ended their visit on 17 April without visiting Al-Najaf or Muqtada al-Sadr, IRNA reported. What! And help solve the problem they've caused? |
| Posted by: Zenster 2004-04-20 1:14:37 AM |