Iraq draws a bead on 'enemy'
Iran By Valentinas Mite
The recent
declaration by Iraqi Defense Minister Hazim Shalan
al-Khuzai that Iran is the "first enemy" focuses renewed
attention on Baghdad's relations with Tehran. In an
interview this week with the Washington Post, Khuzai
also accused Iran of taking over some
Iraqi border posts
and sending spies and saboteurs to destabilize the
country.
Iran denies the claims, saying Tehran -
"despite the wounds and damages inflicted [on Iran] by
the former Iraqi regime" - is doing everything it can to
help the Iraqi nation.
At the same time, after
years of hostility and recent tension over foreign
fighters sneaking into Iraq, interim Iraqi Prime
Minister Iyad Allawi has ended a visit to Syria with a
declaration that diplomatic relations between the two
countries will be restored soon.
Yahia Said is a
research officer who specializes in Iraq and other
nations in transition for the London School of Economics
and Political Science. He told Radio Free Europe/Radio
Liberty that Khuzai's statement was both unprofessional
and undiplomatic. "The statements of the minister of
defense were, to put it mildly, unprofessional," Said
said. "He named Iran as Iraq's enemy No 1,
essentially declaring war in diplomatic language. And
regardless of what motivated him to say that, it was an
unprofessional statement which was rightly rejected or
not supported by the prime minister [Allawi]."
In response to Khuzai's comments, Allawi said
Iraq "does not have enemies [in Iran] in that sense".
Labid Abawi, deputy foreign minister for policy
planning, says Iraq's concerns about border issues apply
not only to Iran "but also for the other neighboring
countries".
Iran, the biggest Shi'ite state in
the world, has special relations and interests in Iraq,
where Shi'ite Muslims make up more than 60% of the
population.
Ali Reza Nourizadeh is director of
the Center for Arab and Iranian Studies in London. He
said Iran is eager to influence the situation in Iraq
and has many channels through which to do so, the most
effective being former Iraqi emigres who spent long
years in Iran.
Nourizadeh said the Center for
Arab and Iranian Studies had interviewed several Iraqi
officials who expressed concerns about the loyalty of
these former emigres. Iraqi officials "are very
concerned, you know. There are thousands of Iraqis, or
half-Iraqis, who lived in Iran, and they were
cooperating with Iranian intelligence during Saddam
Hussein's [rule]. They all returned to Iraq [now],"
Nourizadeh said.
Nourizadeh said there were no
accurate figures on how many have returned, but the
now-defunct Iraqi Governing Council had issued them
passports and identity cards without their backgrounds
not being properly checked first.
"When the
Iraqi defense minister is saying that Iran is becoming
Iraq's first enemy, he is speaking about the Iranian
influence and saying what other politicians wouldn't
dare say in public," said Nourizadeh.
More
important, the militias of some Iraqi political
parties were trained with Iranian assistance.
Said from the London School of Economics
said the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in
Iraq has the most efficient military organization, which
was trained with Iranian support. "The Supreme Council
for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, for example, is
definitely [strongly affected by Iran], and has very
strong links with the Iranian establishment," Said said.
"Especially its military arm [Badr Brigades], which has
now been transformed into a political organization,
which is [named] Badr Organization. People in Iraq
believe that there are lots of Iranian military officers
and security officers in that organization."
Said pointed out that Tehran has other possible
ways to influence Iraq. Iraq is the historical center of
Shi'ite Islam, and the holy cities of Najaf and Karbala
are destinations for Iranian pilgrims. It is not
difficult for Iran to infiltrate these pilgrims with its
own agents. "You know, there are tens of thousands of
pilgrims that come to Iraq - Iranian pilgrims - and you
often hear reports about Iranian agents being among
them, being caught among these pilgrims," Said said.
Analysts say that with no unity among the
political elite of Iraq, the future of Iraq-Iran
relations looks uncertain. Nourizadeh said the situation
might become more distinct after Iraq's prime minister
visits Tehran, planned for August. He said Allawi will
have to persuade Iran to pursue one policy toward Iraq.
"We should wait until Mr Allawi's visit to
Tehran. I mean, he had an invitation from [Iranian
President Mohammed] Khatami. We should see whether when
he goes to Tehran he would be able to convince the
Iranian government that better they come up with one
policy towards Iraq, not two or three policies,"
Nourizadeh said.
Nourizadeh said that although
Tehran officially supports stability in Iraq, he
believes Iran's Revolutionary Guards and its own
security agencies have their own agendas and are acting
in contradiction of the official line.
Nourizadeh pointed out that the presence of US
troops in Iraq worries Iran and complicates its
relations with Iraq. He said Iran faced a difficult
geopolitical situation, with US troops also based in
neighboring Afghanistan.
Even more, he said,
Iran was afraid Iraq might eventually become a
democratic and secular state. "I don't think that by
just removing Americans from Iraq, the problem between
Iran and the new government of Iraq will be solved,"
Nourizadeh said. "No. The Iranian regime [will be]
unhappy to see a secular, prosperous, federal Iraq near
Iran."
Hand of friendship to
Syria After what
he described as "fruitful and constructive" talks this
week with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Allawi said
the two countries had agreed to set up a joint committee
to oversee the security of their 600-kilometer border.
"Relations will be restored and they will be
strong," Allawi said. "It is clear that our visit here
is the beginning of a bright chapter in relations
between our two brotherly people. We are opening a new
page with Syria," he told a press conference held
jointly with his Syrian counterpart Mohammed Naji Otri.
Damascus-based diplomats told Inter Press
Service that the two countries had signed security
agreements that address border control, joint patrols
and exchange of security and intelligence information.
"That the decisions were made without US
auspices is a good indicator of the Iraqi interim
government's willingness to get the ball rolling on
establishing a viable state that can stand alongside its
neighbors," a Western diplomat said. "Security is a
central part of any state, and it is crucial that this
agreement works so it can be followed by others."
Syria has long been a haven for Iraqis opposed
to Saddam. Syria's branch of the ruling Ba'ath Party
broke with the Iraqi Ba'ath Party in 1966 amid political
infighting.
During the Iran-Iraq War of 1980-88,
Syria was the only Arab country to support Persian Iran.
Syria also joined the US-led coalition against Iraq in
the 1991 Gulf War. Yet it was one of the strongest
opponents of the second US-led war on Iraq, and greeted
Allawi's government with suspicion.
Many Syrians are
still resistant to the new Iraqi government. "We express
resentment over the visit of the head of the government
of the occupation of Iraq," a group of Syrian intellectuals
said in a statement as Allawi headed for Damascus.
"He is persona non grata in our country, not
only because of his personal disgraceful past but also
because he and his government are just tools in the
hands of the occupation against Iraq and the Arab
nation."
The statement added: "He and his
cabinet are preparing to turn Iraq into a launching pad
to reshape the region and place it under
American-Israeli domination."
The United States
has repeatedly accused Syria of not doing enough to stop
infiltration of Islamic fighters through the Syrian
border to Iraq to fight the coalition forces. Syria has
denied the accusations, but has said also that it cannot
fully police its border with its eastern neighbor.
Kidnappings have been frequent in recent months,
and insurgents appear to have become emboldened after
forcing the Philippines to withdraw its 51-member
peacekeeping contingent last week to save the life of a
Filipino truck driver they were holding.
Iraqi officials accompanying Allawi said the prime
minister was seeking on his first Middle East tour since he
took power on June 28 to rebuild relations with Iraq's
neighbors after the end of the Saddam regime.
The
Syrian prime minister assured Allawi his country was
keen to "achieve security and stability in Iraq" and to
"support the efforts that aim at achieving that".
Allawi assured Syrians, who repeatedly demand
withdrawal of occupation forces from Iraq, that Baghdad
has the right once it completes the training of its own
military forces to ask US-led forces to leave the
country.
Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk
Al-Sharaa said the recent improvement in Syrian-Iraqi
relations was not intended to placate Washington. He
said he hoped the "current faces" in the US
administration would "disappear" in the coming
presidential elections in November.
Syrian
analysts believe Syria is most severely affected by the
Iraq war and the deterioration of security within Iraq.
An Iraqi oil pipeline running through Syria has been
closed, and bilateral trade exchanges greatly cut down,
depriving Syria of considerable revenues.
Iraqi
sources said the two countries have discussed ways to
reinforce economic and trade ties, adding that Syria
would participate in the third donor conference for Iraq
scheduled to be held in Tokyo in October.
Iraqi
Oil Minister Thamer al-Ghadhban said he signed an
agreement with his Syrian counterpart Ibrahim Haddad to
export crude oil to Syria from an oilfield close to the
border. In return, Syria would supply Iraq with refined
petroleum products.
The Syrian economy is in
deep crisis and would benefit greatly if it were offered
a slice of the lucrative reconstruction market in Iraq.
Syria and Iraq have worked over several years to rehabilitate
their ties. This was accelerated when Bashar
Assad succeeded his father Hafez Assad as president
of Syria in 2000.
Trade between the two
countries resumed in 1997, and Syrian exports to Iraq
jumped from US$500 million in 1997 to $2 billion in
2002, according to official Iraqi statistics.
"Although the new decisions have shown that Iraq
and Syria are serious about confronting their mutual
security concerns, a dose of healthy skepticism is still
warranted," said economist Izeddeen Ismail, who lectures
at the Damascus Faculty of Trade. "Pan-Arab projects
have hardly had the best track record when judged by the
past 50 years' trail of failed agreements and
friendships."
(Additional reporting from
Damascus by George Baghdadi of Inter Press Service.)
Copyright 2004 RFE/RL Inc.
Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free
Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW,
Washington, DC 20036
Iraqi border posts
and sending spies and saboteurs to destabilize the
country. 
