PVS
February 13th, 2005 4:43 pm
Shiites Win (Americans grill top Shia Leaders)
By Hamza Hendawi / Associated Press
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) With a Shiite coalition set to take power in Iraq, American officials have begun grilling top Iraqi Shiite politicians to try to gauge the extent of their relationship with neighboring Iran, a predominantly Shiite nation ruled by its clergy.
The nature of the Shiite coalition's ties to Iran has become a crucial issue now that the cleric-backed alliance has emerged as the leading faction in the new Iraqi parliament and at a time when the United States and Iran are engaged in a war of words over Iran's nuclear program.
In recent talks, U.S. diplomats have bluntly asked the leaders how a Shiite-dominated government would react if Iran came under attack by an outside power because of its suspected nuclear weapons program, according to a high-ranking member of one Shiite party.
The Iraqi Shiite leaders have reassured the Americans that they are mostly concerned about how any such attack would affect Iraq, and they have stressed their independence from Iran, said the Shiite party official, who is familiar with the U.S. talks but would speak only on condition of anonymity.
Despite such assurances, the questioning highlights a growing U.S. worry that the government set to take power in Iraq could be dominated by Shiite clerics strongly influenced by Iran.
Many members of the Iraqi Shiite coalition lived in Iran until the April 2003 fall of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.
Despite those Iranian links, U.S. officials supported the Iraqi Shiite parties before the war because they shared Saddam as a common enemy. Three of the Shiite parties in the coalition closely cooperated with the United States in the run-up to the U.S.-led Iraq invasion.
The prospect of close Iraq-Iran Shiite ties also worries Iraq's Sunni Arab minority a group that had long dominated Iraq under Saddam and which nurtures strong anti-Iranian sentiments.
The Shiite ticket set to take power in Iraq, called the United Iraqi Alliance, is built around two major Shiite parties with close links to Iran Dawa and the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, known as SCIRI.
It was endorsed by the Iranian-born Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq's top Shiite cleric, and includes supporters of a young Shiite cleric, Muqtada al-Sadr, with ties to the Iranian clergy, and prominent politician Ahmad Chalabi, a secular Shiite who once was Washington's favorite to replace Saddam.
''The Iranian ticket,'' was how many Sunni Arabs dubbed the al-Sistani-endorsed slate.
Full results from the Jan. 30 election for a 275-seat National Assembly were announced Sunday, showing the Alliance with about 48 percent of the vote, with a Kurdish coalition in second place with about half the Shiite total.
The Shiites, however, fell short of the two-thirds majority required to push through their agenda without support of smaller groups.
Both DAWA and SCIRI enjoyed Tehran's patronage for more than two decades before Saddam's ouster in April 2003.
''Yes, we were and still are friends of Iran, but we are not Iranian stooges,'' said one top official in SCIRI, speaking on condition of anonymity. ''We don't need Iran any more except as a good neighborly nation and an old friend.''
Another candidate on the list, Shiite cleric Jalaleddin al-Sagheer, said opponents of Saddam's regime had such strong ties to Iran before the war simply because of Iran's next-door location and because of Saddam's good relations with most other neighbors.
''It is Iran that's tied to Iraq, and not vice versa,'' al-Sagheer said. ''They need Iraq for its shrines and its religious authorities. ... Iran needs to have good relations with a country that shares with it 1200 kilometers (745 miles) of borders.''
Nevertheless, Shiite leaders like Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim of SCIRI who heads the ticket and Iraqi Vice President Ibrahim al-Jaafari of Dawa are aware that past Iran ties are worrisome to both Sunni Arabs and Americans, party officials say.
The two leaders have been reaching out to Arab Sunnis in recent days, assuring the Sunnis that they would be represented in the next government and involved in drafting a permanent constitution, one of the assembly's main tasks.
The two party leaders also have sought to distance themselves from Iran. SCIRI, for example, has sent envoys to Tehran to protest Iran's ''moral and logistical'' support for the Sunni-led insurgency in Iraq, said the SCIRI official.
Iraqi Shiites believe some Iranian hard-liners support the insurgency because it bogs down the United States.
Some U.S. officials in Washington have long contended that some of SCIRI and Dawa's funding comes from Iran, although they have provided no public evidence.
Iraqi newspapers also have been filled with reports of Iranian security agents posing as Shiite pilgrims slipping into Iraq after Saddam's ouster. And some Iranians are believed to have joined militiamen loyal to al-Sadr when they staged two rebellions against U.S. forces last year.
Despite the fact that both Iran and Iraq are majority Shiite, the two peoples Arabs and Persians have been rivals since medieval times.
The two countries fought a ruinous 1980-88 war, during which Iraqis who belonged to SCIRI fought alongside Iranians against their own countrymen. Saddam's Arab nationalist regime expelled tens of thousands of Iraqi Shiites to Iran in the 1970s and 1980s, accusing them of being Iranians.
Many of them returned, some with children who speak better Farsi than Arabic.
The U.S. government hasn't openly threatened military action against Iran, but believes the country is using its nuclear energy program to conceal an effort to manufacture nuclear weapons. For the time being, the Bush administration is relying on France, Britain and Germany to negotiate with Iranian leaders to curb any such atomic bomb efforts, which Tehran denies.
Shiites Win (Americans grill top Shia Leaders)
By Hamza Hendawi / Associated Press
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) With a Shiite coalition set to take power in Iraq, American officials have begun grilling top Iraqi Shiite politicians to try to gauge the extent of their relationship with neighboring Iran, a predominantly Shiite nation ruled by its clergy.
The nature of the Shiite coalition's ties to Iran has become a crucial issue now that the cleric-backed alliance has emerged as the leading faction in the new Iraqi parliament and at a time when the United States and Iran are engaged in a war of words over Iran's nuclear program.
In recent talks, U.S. diplomats have bluntly asked the leaders how a Shiite-dominated government would react if Iran came under attack by an outside power because of its suspected nuclear weapons program, according to a high-ranking member of one Shiite party.
The Iraqi Shiite leaders have reassured the Americans that they are mostly concerned about how any such attack would affect Iraq, and they have stressed their independence from Iran, said the Shiite party official, who is familiar with the U.S. talks but would speak only on condition of anonymity.
Despite such assurances, the questioning highlights a growing U.S. worry that the government set to take power in Iraq could be dominated by Shiite clerics strongly influenced by Iran.
Many members of the Iraqi Shiite coalition lived in Iran until the April 2003 fall of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.
Despite those Iranian links, U.S. officials supported the Iraqi Shiite parties before the war because they shared Saddam as a common enemy. Three of the Shiite parties in the coalition closely cooperated with the United States in the run-up to the U.S.-led Iraq invasion.
The prospect of close Iraq-Iran Shiite ties also worries Iraq's Sunni Arab minority a group that had long dominated Iraq under Saddam and which nurtures strong anti-Iranian sentiments.
The Shiite ticket set to take power in Iraq, called the United Iraqi Alliance, is built around two major Shiite parties with close links to Iran Dawa and the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, known as SCIRI.
It was endorsed by the Iranian-born Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq's top Shiite cleric, and includes supporters of a young Shiite cleric, Muqtada al-Sadr, with ties to the Iranian clergy, and prominent politician Ahmad Chalabi, a secular Shiite who once was Washington's favorite to replace Saddam.
''The Iranian ticket,'' was how many Sunni Arabs dubbed the al-Sistani-endorsed slate.
Full results from the Jan. 30 election for a 275-seat National Assembly were announced Sunday, showing the Alliance with about 48 percent of the vote, with a Kurdish coalition in second place with about half the Shiite total.
The Shiites, however, fell short of the two-thirds majority required to push through their agenda without support of smaller groups.
Both DAWA and SCIRI enjoyed Tehran's patronage for more than two decades before Saddam's ouster in April 2003.
''Yes, we were and still are friends of Iran, but we are not Iranian stooges,'' said one top official in SCIRI, speaking on condition of anonymity. ''We don't need Iran any more except as a good neighborly nation and an old friend.''
Another candidate on the list, Shiite cleric Jalaleddin al-Sagheer, said opponents of Saddam's regime had such strong ties to Iran before the war simply because of Iran's next-door location and because of Saddam's good relations with most other neighbors.
''It is Iran that's tied to Iraq, and not vice versa,'' al-Sagheer said. ''They need Iraq for its shrines and its religious authorities. ... Iran needs to have good relations with a country that shares with it 1200 kilometers (745 miles) of borders.''
Nevertheless, Shiite leaders like Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim of SCIRI who heads the ticket and Iraqi Vice President Ibrahim al-Jaafari of Dawa are aware that past Iran ties are worrisome to both Sunni Arabs and Americans, party officials say.
The two leaders have been reaching out to Arab Sunnis in recent days, assuring the Sunnis that they would be represented in the next government and involved in drafting a permanent constitution, one of the assembly's main tasks.
The two party leaders also have sought to distance themselves from Iran. SCIRI, for example, has sent envoys to Tehran to protest Iran's ''moral and logistical'' support for the Sunni-led insurgency in Iraq, said the SCIRI official.
Iraqi Shiites believe some Iranian hard-liners support the insurgency because it bogs down the United States.
Some U.S. officials in Washington have long contended that some of SCIRI and Dawa's funding comes from Iran, although they have provided no public evidence.
Iraqi newspapers also have been filled with reports of Iranian security agents posing as Shiite pilgrims slipping into Iraq after Saddam's ouster. And some Iranians are believed to have joined militiamen loyal to al-Sadr when they staged two rebellions against U.S. forces last year.
Despite the fact that both Iran and Iraq are majority Shiite, the two peoples Arabs and Persians have been rivals since medieval times.
The two countries fought a ruinous 1980-88 war, during which Iraqis who belonged to SCIRI fought alongside Iranians against their own countrymen. Saddam's Arab nationalist regime expelled tens of thousands of Iraqi Shiites to Iran in the 1970s and 1980s, accusing them of being Iranians.
Many of them returned, some with children who speak better Farsi than Arabic.
The U.S. government hasn't openly threatened military action against Iran, but believes the country is using its nuclear energy program to conceal an effort to manufacture nuclear weapons. For the time being, the Bush administration is relying on France, Britain and Germany to negotiate with Iranian leaders to curb any such atomic bomb efforts, which Tehran denies.
Good because it should kick Bush in the face for a bit... maybe the troops will leave like Iraq is asking them to.