CAIRO, 18 November 2005 — Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit said yesterday that Iranian influence is introducing alien religious ideas to Iraq, setting the stage for a sectarian civil war if US troops withdraw too soon.

US forces should stay in Iraq “helping to stabilize” the country, even if their presence attracts attacks, he told Reuters in an interview two days before a conference in Cairo seeking to reconcile Iraqi political factions.

“The Iranians are spreading a notion of behavior in relation to life, to religion, the role of religion in the state, the philosophy of the marja’iya (Shiite religious authority). These are issues that Iraq didn’t have over 100 years of building a nation,” the minister said.

If US forces withdrew, civil war would break out and because of “the foreign element,” the war would take on a religious nature, he added.

“The foreign element is sadly not on the secular side but on the religious side...and when you have a religious war, it might be like the religious wars in Europe,” he said.

He said the presence of US forces was different because it did not have cultural or philosophical consequences.

“The issue is the cultural, philosophical approach to the role of the mosque, the role of the state, the role of education, the role of women, the role of family. Is it the Iranian model or is the model of a centrist Islam?” he said.

Aboul Gheit was expressing fears shared by many Sunni Arab countries about rising Shiite influence in Iraq and the links of some Iraqi factions with neighboring Shiite Iran.

But he declined to criticize the Tehran government directly, saying private Iranian citizens could be spreading their ideas unwittingly while visiting Shiite Muslim holy places in Iraq.

He also said that in the end it was up to Iraqis to make up their minds about what kind of country they want to live in.

“It is the Iraqis who will decide what course they wish to see. If they choose the Iranian model, well, that is their lot... If I am making the choice for myself, I would not follow (the Iranian model),” he added.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has repeatedly said that US forces should stay in Iraq until the Iraqi government and security forces can control the country. Egyptian officials rarely speak so openly about Iranian influence.

King Abdullah of Jordan caused a stir after the invasion of Iraq when he warned of a possible “Shiite crescent” developing from Iran to Lebanon through Iraq and Syria.

Egypt and Iran have not had diplomatic relations since the 1970s but they do have diplomatic contacts and Iran will take part in the Iraq conference opening on Saturday.

The Arab League is hosting the event, aimed at bridging ethnic and sectarian differences before Iraq’s Dec. 15 election.

The Egyptian government warned the United States of the dangers of invading Iraq in 2003 but, like many other Arab governments friendly toward Washington, it does not now favor immediate US withdrawal.

“Between all the ills of this situation, I think it is better to have foreign (US) forces on the ground helping to stabilize even if they are subject to fire...until the point we build up organs of power that would impose themselves on the scene, until we build up internal consensus,” Aboul Gheit said.

Iraq Seeks Iran’s Help With Syria Over Insurgents

A senior Iraqi security official urged Iran yesterday to use its influence with Damascus to help stop the flow of foreign fighters crossing into his country from Syria.

US, British and Iraqi officials have demanded that Syria stop foreign insurgents crossing its frontier with Iraq and close training camps on its soil. Syria has denied supporting insurgents and says it wants to see a stable Iraq.

“We have asked Iran to use its good ties with Syria and help stop insurgents crossing into Iraq,” Mowaffaq Al-Rubaie, Iraq’s national security adviser, told reporters at the end of his two-day official visit to Tehran.

“We want good relations with Syria...We want to prevent more bloodshed in Iraq,” he said.

Damascus is Tehran’s closest political ally in the region.

Nearly all the suicide bombers who have carried out attacks in Iraq have been Arabs who crossed into the country from Syria, Rubaie told journalists in Cairo on Sunday.

US, British and some Iraqi officials have also accused Iran, Iraq’s eastern neighbor, of interfering in Iraq’s state matters and allowing militants to enter Iraq to take up arms in the insurgency.

But Rubaie said there was no proof to substantiate these charges.