A reporter for L'Orient Le Jour, Beirut, and regional expert, Morad Veissi, has predicted that as the Shi'ites are poised to take a position of power in Iraq, it is Iran that benefits. He stresses the spiritual links of Iran with the majority of Iraqis and further states that Iranians, both members of the press and officials in the government, are exercising discretion and refraining from comment out of concern that they might be seen as interfering in Iraqi affairs.
So, have all those American lives been lost, and billions of our dollars spent, and all we will have to show for it in the end is the strengthening of the fundamentalist mullahs of Iran? Good job, GW! Good job, neocons! (sarcasm)
Iran Hopes for a Renewed Victory by Shi'ite Parties in Iraq
...Iran has historical ties not only to the Shi’ite Iraqi parties now in power in Baghdad but also with the Kurds, whom it supported during their revolt against Saddam Hussein. Outgoing Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari is a member of al-Da‘wa al-Islamiyya, a Shi’ite party created at the end of the 1950’s, found political asylum in Iran during the 1980 during the height of the Iran-Iraq War. The Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), the main Shi’ite political party, was created in Tehran in 1982. It’s leader, Abdel Aziz Hakim, has maintained contacts with the Iranian regime.
In any case, the victory of the Shi’ite and Kurd parties last January has had the effect of considerably warming relations between the two countries. After a visit by Iraqi head of government Ibrahim Jaafari to Tehran in July, President Jalal Talabani visited Iran in November, the first official visit of an Iraqi head of state in nearly forty years. The successive visits of the different Iraqi officials to Tehran clearly demonstrate the rapprochement between the two nations, said Mr. Veissi, according to whom Iran is the first destination in the region for Iraqi leaders.
However, several officials in Baghdad have accused Tehran of interference in Iraq’s internal affairs which the US and Britain have accused it of destabilization. President George W. Bush declared on Monday that Iraq’s neighbor to the east, Iran, is actively working to undermine a free Iraq. Iran does not want democracy to succeed in Iraq because Iraq threatens the legitimacy of the theocracy of oppression in place in Iran. US Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said at the beginning of December that Iran pursues a dual policy : one the one hand, it supports the Iraqi goverment and fosters economic and political ties. But on the other it works with groups fighting against the new order in Iraq.
Such a vision is contested by analysts like Mr. Veissi, who observes, As Iraqi administrations and institutions are put in place, the pretext for the American presence diminishes--and that suits the interests of Iran.
The original article is in French and from L'Orient Le Jour, Beirut.
The English article translation can be found here:
http://nuralcubicle.blogspot.com /
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