US, Iraq differ on Iranian meddling in military pact
BAGHDAD (AFP) – Senior US and Iraqi officials differed on Tehran's role in stalling a military accord that will allow US troops to remain in Iraq until 2011, as Iran on Tuesday sent mixed signals on the deal.
The Iraqi cabinet approved the agreement on Sunday and parliament was expected on November 24 to take a vote on the wide-ranging pact, which would replace the troops' UN mandate when it expires on December 31.
After months of wrangling, the agreement was eventually accepted by all the major political blocs representing Iraq's Shiite majority and its Sunni and Kurdish communities.
But two senior US officials involved in the protracted negotiations leading up to the deal insisted on Monday that mostly Shiite Iran had done everything it could to pressure Iraqi leaders into refusing the agreement.
"There has been absolutely no softening in the position of the government of Iran. They are dead-set against the success of this agreement," one of the officials said on condition of anonymity.
"They have, to our knowledge and the knowledge of every Iraqi official involved in this, maintained unrelenting pressure."
Despite the vast improvement in security in Iraq over the past year US officials insist Iran is still funding, arming and training proxy militias in the country, charges denied by Tehran.
"Iran strategically wants to be the dominant actor in this country in every sphere, economics, political, security," another senior US official in Baghdad said. "They have pulled out every stop to block this agreement."
Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh , however, said he felt the Iranians had "become less offensive on this agreement" because of Iraqi assurances that its territory would not be used for attacks on its neighbours.
"I think that (the Iranians) are looking to have a better policy with the US. We are encouraging even the US to review their policy toward Iran," Dabbagh told AFP at his residence in Baghdad's heavily-guarded Green Zone on Monday.
"We are the big loser in the conflict between the United States and Iran. At the end Iraq is a battlefield," he added.
In a televised address later on Tuesday Maliki sought to reassure both Iran and Syria, who have said the pact legitimises the US occupation.
"There will be no permanent (US) bases in Iraq and our country will not be used as a corridor or as a base to attack another state," Maliki said.
Tehran has yet to officially respond to the Iraqi cabinet's approval, but in the Islamic republic reactions were mixed.
Parliament speaker Ali Larijani urged the Iraqi parliament to resist the pact which he said strengthens "US hegemony in Iraq," in statements carried overnight by the official IRNA news agency.
"With this so-called security pact, they were after turning Iraq into another US state but the Iraqi sources of jurisprudence, government and nation resisted for eight months," Larijani said, referring to the lengthy talks.
"The Iraqi nation and parliament should realise that the time for resistance is not over yet," he added.
But the head of Iran's judiciary, Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahrudi, said Iraq had "performed well" with regard to the pact and expressed his hope that US troops would depart according to its timetable.
Last month Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said the agreement seeks to keep Iraq weak to help America "pillage" the country.
But a week after he made his remarks the US military again accused Iran of stoking violence in Iraq, saying it had arrested 39 Iranian-funded "criminals" and seized half a million dollars bound for militias.
Iran, which fought a bloody war with Iraq from 1980-1988, has denied such charges, saying it is committed to stability in the country.