lily
01-27-2007, 12:17 AM
Like it or not, it's in Bush's best intrest to talk with Iran, also it's going to be interesting to see what if anything is done with al-Sadr. (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/25/AR2007012502087.html?referrer=email)
Tehran's Influence Grows As Iraqis See Advantages
By Joshua Partlow
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, January 26, 2007; Page A01
BAGHDAD, Jan. 25 -- When Fadhil Abbas determined that his mother's
astigmatism required surgery, they did not consider treatment in his home
town of Najaf, in southern Iraq. Instead they joined a four-taxi convoy of
ailing Iraqis headed to Iran.
For more than two weeks last fall, Abbas, his sister and his mother were
treated to free hotels, trips to the zoo and religious shrines, and his
mother's $1,300 eye surgery at a hospital in Tehran, all courtesy of the
offices of Moqtada al-Sadr, Iraq's ascendant Shiite Muslim cleric. Abbas
returned to Najaf glowing over the technical prowess of Iran.
"When you look at this hospital, it is like something imaginary -- you
wouldn't believe such a hospital like this exists," said Abbas, a
22-year-old college student. "Iran wants to help the patients in Iraq. Other
countries don't want to let Iraqis in."
The increasingly common arrangement for sick or wounded Iraqis to receive
treatment in Iran is just one strand in a burgeoning relationship between
these two Persian Gulf countries. Thousands of Iranian pilgrims visit the
Shiite holy cities in southern Iraq each year. Iran exports electricity and
refined oil products to Iraq, and Iraqi vendors sell Iranian-made cars, air
coolers, plastics and the black flags, decorated with colorful script, that
Shiites are flying this week to celebrate the religious holiday of Ashura.
But when President Bush and top U.S. officials speak of Iran's role in Iraq,
their focus is more limited. U.S. officials accuse Iranian security forces,
particularly the al-Quds Brigade of the Revolutionary Guards, of funneling
sophisticated explosives to Iraqi guerrillas.
"We will not allow hegemony of a hostile regime to have power over this
area," U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad said this week.
But changing the "behavior" of the Iranian government, as Khalilzad
proposes, collides with Iran's expanding influence in Iraq, which is built
on deep cultural ties as well as personal and business relationships
developed during the years that many leading Iraqi Shiite politicians spent
in exile in Iran.
Iran has dispatched 56 diplomats to staff its embassy in Baghdad and
consulates in Basra and Karbala. It maintains informal liaison offices in
the Kurdish cities of Sulaymaniyah and Irbil, the latter of which was raided
Jan. 11 by U.S. troops, who arrested five Iranians. Each day, Iran provides
1,000 tons of cooking gas, about 20 percent of the Iraqi demand, and 2
million liters of kerosene. Iran exports electricity through Iraq's Diyala
province and plans to quadruple the amount with new projects, Iraqi
officials say.
Iran has also extended a $1 billion line of credit to Iraq to help fund
reconstruction and rebuilding. When Iraqi President Jalal Talabani and his
delegation of ministers visited Iran in November, he asked for more help and
said Iraq "would like to expand our relations in every field with the
Islamic Republic of Iran."
"The economic power between the two countries, it's enormous," said Hassan
Kazemi Qomi, Iran's ambassador to Iraq. "We can help them in technical
issues and engineering. We have a lot of experience in building roads and
airports."
Qomi works inside a stone embassy in a compound with lush gardens and
spear-wielding statuary just outside the fortified Green Zone, the seat of
U.S. power in Iraq. When he speaks of the Americans, he calls them "the
others."
"As for our policy, it's clear and it's going forward. We are happy with the
Iraqi government," Qomi said at a recent news conference. "The kidnapping of
our diplomats will have no effect at all on our help and cooperation with
the Iraqi side. . . . We are only at the first stages of this support."
Tehran's Influence Grows As Iraqis See Advantages
By Joshua Partlow
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, January 26, 2007; Page A01
BAGHDAD, Jan. 25 -- When Fadhil Abbas determined that his mother's
astigmatism required surgery, they did not consider treatment in his home
town of Najaf, in southern Iraq. Instead they joined a four-taxi convoy of
ailing Iraqis headed to Iran.
For more than two weeks last fall, Abbas, his sister and his mother were
treated to free hotels, trips to the zoo and religious shrines, and his
mother's $1,300 eye surgery at a hospital in Tehran, all courtesy of the
offices of Moqtada al-Sadr, Iraq's ascendant Shiite Muslim cleric. Abbas
returned to Najaf glowing over the technical prowess of Iran.
"When you look at this hospital, it is like something imaginary -- you
wouldn't believe such a hospital like this exists," said Abbas, a
22-year-old college student. "Iran wants to help the patients in Iraq. Other
countries don't want to let Iraqis in."
The increasingly common arrangement for sick or wounded Iraqis to receive
treatment in Iran is just one strand in a burgeoning relationship between
these two Persian Gulf countries. Thousands of Iranian pilgrims visit the
Shiite holy cities in southern Iraq each year. Iran exports electricity and
refined oil products to Iraq, and Iraqi vendors sell Iranian-made cars, air
coolers, plastics and the black flags, decorated with colorful script, that
Shiites are flying this week to celebrate the religious holiday of Ashura.
But when President Bush and top U.S. officials speak of Iran's role in Iraq,
their focus is more limited. U.S. officials accuse Iranian security forces,
particularly the al-Quds Brigade of the Revolutionary Guards, of funneling
sophisticated explosives to Iraqi guerrillas.
"We will not allow hegemony of a hostile regime to have power over this
area," U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad said this week.
But changing the "behavior" of the Iranian government, as Khalilzad
proposes, collides with Iran's expanding influence in Iraq, which is built
on deep cultural ties as well as personal and business relationships
developed during the years that many leading Iraqi Shiite politicians spent
in exile in Iran.
Iran has dispatched 56 diplomats to staff its embassy in Baghdad and
consulates in Basra and Karbala. It maintains informal liaison offices in
the Kurdish cities of Sulaymaniyah and Irbil, the latter of which was raided
Jan. 11 by U.S. troops, who arrested five Iranians. Each day, Iran provides
1,000 tons of cooking gas, about 20 percent of the Iraqi demand, and 2
million liters of kerosene. Iran exports electricity through Iraq's Diyala
province and plans to quadruple the amount with new projects, Iraqi
officials say.
Iran has also extended a $1 billion line of credit to Iraq to help fund
reconstruction and rebuilding. When Iraqi President Jalal Talabani and his
delegation of ministers visited Iran in November, he asked for more help and
said Iraq "would like to expand our relations in every field with the
Islamic Republic of Iran."
"The economic power between the two countries, it's enormous," said Hassan
Kazemi Qomi, Iran's ambassador to Iraq. "We can help them in technical
issues and engineering. We have a lot of experience in building roads and
airports."
Qomi works inside a stone embassy in a compound with lush gardens and
spear-wielding statuary just outside the fortified Green Zone, the seat of
U.S. power in Iraq. When he speaks of the Americans, he calls them "the
others."
"As for our policy, it's clear and it's going forward. We are happy with the
Iraqi government," Qomi said at a recent news conference. "The kidnapping of
our diplomats will have no effect at all on our help and cooperation with
the Iraqi side. . . . We are only at the first stages of this support."