Bulletin de liaison et d'information - Institut kurde de Paris

Revue de Presse-Press Review-Berhevoka Çapê-Rivista Stampa-Dentro de la Prensa-Baszn Özeti
.Iraq's links to Iran
-create dilemma for u.s.
Elected leaders view neighbor as ally
By Edward Wong
- BAGHDAD: Donald Rumsfeld, the
U.S.defense secretary, delivered a blunt
message to Iraqi leaders during a visit
here last week: The Iraqis would have to
be more aggressive in opposing the
"harmful" meddling of Iran in this
country's affairs before the United
States could consider regional stability
assured and the way clear for American
forces to go home.
It was an argument with a paradox at
its heart.
Regaining a semblance of stability
here is a goal of both the Iraqi government
and the United States. But the
country's-elected leadership apparently
believes that Iraq's long-term welfare
will depend on building a strong relationship
with Iran as well as maintaining
ties to the United States. As the
Shiite Arab leaders who now hold sway
in Baghdad s~e it, support from their
co-religionists in Iran could be decisive
in keeping Iraq from slipping further
into chaos.
That is clearly not the kind of stability
Rumsfeld has in mind.
The Shiite leaders, though, already
draw support from Iran as well as the
United States in the face of the deep
Sunni Arab resentment that has fed the
insurgen.c.yl1eJ:~.Slljj~~political parties
have historically had much stronger ties -
to Iran than to the United States, which,
as they vividly recall, did nothing when
Sadoam Hussein ordered the slaughter
of up to 150,000 Shiites who rebelled
after the 1991Gulfwar.
The Shiite parties also assu~e that
the American enterprise here will probably
end as centuries of foreign adventures
in this part of the world have -
w!th the .imperial co~ntry eventually
Wlthdrawmg and leavmg the region to
sort out its own affairs.
Before the U.S.-led forces invaded,
some analysts in Washington predicted
_that Iran would hold little appeal for
Iraq's 17 million Shiites because they
are Arabs while the majority of Iran's
Shiites are Persians, historical enemies
of the Arabs. That view failed to anticipate
the depth of tension and violence
that have now divided Iraq's Arabs,
largely along the lines of the two main
branches of Islam, Sunni and Shiite.
Still, U.S.officials hold to the belief that
in the end, Iraqi nationalism. which
Shiites here share, will keep Iraq from
being pulled into Iran's orbit.
The reality, however, is that Iraqi
leaders. with the encouragement of
their Iranian counterparts, are trying to
forge stronger bonds with Iran in many
spheres, from reconstruction to the
writing of the constitution.
Draft charter for Iraq
keeping to its timetable
Agence France-Presse - process and play. into the hands ofinsurgents.
BAGHDAD: Parliament will debate a Unresolved issues include the details
draft constitution for Iraq on Aug. 15, of a federal constitution and the bound~
keeping the country on track for a aries of the autonomous Kurdish region
scheduled mid-October referendum on in northern Iraq.
the post-Saddam Hussein charter, offi- The Kurds insist on the incorporation
cials said Monday. - of the ethnically divided northern oil
"We shall conclude the drafting of center of Kirkuk as the region's capital,
the constitution and will hand over the a demand to which the city's Arab and
text to Parliament for debate on Aug. Turkmen communities are largely op-
15,"the chairman of the drafting com- posed.
mittee, Sheik Humam Hammudi, told; There is also disagreement on how
Parliament. - government revenues, particularly the
Hammudi had until Monday to an- oil receipts that make up the lion's I
nounce whether his committee re- share, should be shared between the
quired a six-month postponement to federal government and the component
complete its work, or could finish by an- regions. -
Aug. 15 deadline agreed under interim Members of the drafting committee
constitutional rules. -_ also disagree on whether Kurdish
The United States has pressured IraiÎi ,should be an officiai language nationleaders
to keep to the timetable, amid wide, alongside Arabic, and what role
fears that a delay could undermine pub- Islam should play in the constitution.
lie confidence in thepolitical reform d A national conference of top political
"'We've had good rehitions with the
great Islamic Republic for more than
two decades," said Abdul-Aziz al-
Hakim, a powerful Shiite politician, at a
recent news conference in Basra, Iraq.
"Iran opens its doors and receives the
Iraqis, and there is a huge number of
Iraqis in Iran," he added.
. The Supreme Council's biggest Shiite
.nval, the Dawa Islamic Party, is led by
the Iraqi prime minister, Ibrahim al-
Jaafari, who lived in exile in Iran before
moving to London and who recently
visited Iran.
Since then, he has been proclaiming
the benefits of strengthening relations
with Iran, despite the aversion to the
idea by American officials and by Sunni
Arabs, whom the United States wants _
included in thepolitical process.
At a news conference on June 21,Jaafari
said Iran would provide about $1
billion to buildschools, hospitals and libraries
in Iraq. He also said he and ministers
met with clerics and politicians in
Tehran and discussed border security
and promoting religious tourism.
Under a recent agreement, Iraq and
Iran plan to build an oil pipeline between
Basra and Abadan in Iran,
through which Iran would receive Iraqi
crude oil to refine, in return for exporting
an equal amount of oil on Iraq's be" _
half through the Iranian port at Kharg
Island.
All this amounts to a multipronged
Iranian effort to reinforce the Shiite
powers in Iraq. Many Iraqis distrust Iran
because of the Iran-Iraq war, but they
also realize that Iran has been the historical
defender of the minority Shiite
branch ofIslam against the Sunni Arab.
The New York TImes
Ali Abbas/EPA
Sheik Humam Hammudi, in Baghdad on
Monday, said no extension was needed.
leaders is to be held on Friday to help
iron out remaining differences, Hammudisaid.
"If problems are not solved at this
conference, we shall put them directly
to Parliament .on Aug. 12_. for them to
1