Iraq in anti-terror appeal to Iran

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki has made his first official visit to Iran, a close ally, asking the country’s leader to crack down on al-Qaida militants there.

Mr Maliki also used the meeting to ask for help in tackling Iraq’s troubled oil industry.

The visit reflected the complex relationship between Iran, a mostly Shiite Muslim country, and Iraq’s government, now dominated in the post-Saddam Hussein era by Shiite allies of Tehran.

Since Saddam’s fall in 2003, Iraq has sought better relations with Iran and to heal scars left by the 1980-88 war that killed more than 1 million people on both sides.

The two enjoy increasingly strong ties that include new oil cooperation. Iraq has already turned to Iran for help with a chronic shortage of petroleum goods, reaching a deal last month to import Iranian petrol, kerosene and cooking fuel. Iraqi officials said Mr Maliki’s visit and other recent exchanges could improve the cooperation.

But at the same time, the US – the Iraqi government’s other top ally and a bitter enemy of Iran – has repeatedly accused Tehran of interfering in Iraqi politics and allowing rebels to cross the porous 1,000-mile border. Iran denies the claims.

US State Department spokesman Tom Casey said yesterday that the US favours good relations between Iraq and Iran. But he noted that Washington has “repeatedly expressed our concerns, as have others, about Iranian interference in Iraq’s internal affairs. That is something that we remain concerned about".

Moreover, Iraq is struggling to control months of brutal Shiite-Sunni sectarian violence, some of which is blamed on Shiite militias that are linked to parties in the government but also believed to have ties with Iran.

Mr Maliki’s welcome was warm in Iran, where he spent part of his long exile from Iraq during Saddam’s rule.

The Iraqi leader had a red-carpet reception at the office of Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. After their meeting, the two leaders exchanged jokes and answered questions from reporters.

“All our assistance to the Iraqi people will be to establish complete security” in Iraq, Mr Ahmadinejad told a joint press conference, according to the state-run news agency.

“Iran and Iraq enjoy historical relations. These relations go beyond neighbourly ties. Our relations will remain excellent,” he said.

Mr Maliki said his visit would be “a turning point in the expansion of relations between Iran and Iraq that enjoy historical and ancient ties".

Asked about allegations that Iran was interfering in Iraq, Mr Maliki said, “There is no obstacle in the way of implementing agreements between Iran and Iraq.”

Neither mentioned the issue of al-Qaida militants. But Haidar al-Obadi, a parliament member from al Maliki’s Dawa Party, said the Iraqi leader was asking Iran “for cooperation in controlling the border to prevent any al Qaida exploitation of the border.”

“There are al-Qaida members and al-Qaida strongholds in Iran,” he told the Associated Press. The militants have been “taking advantage of the long border” to smuggle weapons and people into Iraq “most likely without the Iranian government’s knowledge,” he said.

The US accuses Tehran of harbouring al-Qaida fugitives. Tehran has denied the charges and says it has no interest in fomenting instability across the border. However, Iran has not ruled out the possibility that some infiltrators might have crossed its border illegally. Al-Qaida’s branch in Iraq has carried out some of the most brutal suicide attacks against Iraqi Shiites.