TEHRAN, 9 June 2008 — Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki pushed Iran yesterday to back off its fierce opposition to a US-Iraqi security pact, promising Iranian leaders that Iraq will not be a launching pad for any attack on their country.

The agreement has become a center of contention as Baghdad tries to balance its close ties to Washington and Tehran.

Iran fiercely opposes the deal, fearing it will lead to permanent US bases on its doorstep in Iraq amid fears of an eventual American attack.

Iran has led a vocal campaign against the deal, with powerful former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani vowing last week that people in Iraq and the region won’t allow it. That has led to US accusations that Tehran is actively trying to scuttle the agreement — putting Al-Maliki’s government in a tight spot between its two rival allies.

Al-Maliki’s visit to Tehran, his second this year, appeared aimed at getting Iran to tone down its opposition and ease criticism within Iraq, where followers of anti-US Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr — who is close to Tehran — have held weekly protests against the deal.

But the security pact also faces strong criticism from members of Al-Maliki’s own Shiite-dominated coalition. Two Iraqi officials familiar with the negotiations warned yesterday that a deal is unlikely to be reached before the end of President George W. Bush’s term in January unless Washington backs off from some demands seen as giving American forces too much freedom to operate in Iraq and infringing on Iraqi sovereignty.

Iraq’s Parliament must approve the deal, and the two officials said opposition in the legislature was so widespread that it stood no chance of winning approval without significant changes in the US position. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because of the secrecy surrounding the negotiations.

In his talks with Iranian officials, Al-Maliki was offering assurances that the US presence in his country is no threat to Iran, an aide to the prime minister said.

But he will also complain about Iran’s public campaign against the agreement, as interference in Iraq’s internal affairs, the aide said, speaking on condition of anonymity in return for giving information on the private talks.

“A stable Iraq will be a benefit to the security of the region and the world,” Al-Maliki told Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in their meeting yesterday, according to the Iranian president’s website. Al-Maliki also appeared to signal that Tehran would not be squeezed out by any agreement, saying Iraq’s “development and stability will be provided through more bilateral cooperation” with Iran.

Ahmadinejad, in turn, insisted Iran had a key role in Iraq’s security. “The responsibility of (Iraq’s) neighbors is doubled in this regard,” he said, according to the website.

Ahmadinejad also hinted at concerns that the security agreement would mean US domination in Iraq. “Iraq must reach a certain level of stability so that its enemies are not able to impose their influence,” he said, without specifically mentioning the deal.

In talks Saturday evening, the Iraqi prime minister told Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki that the Baghdad government places great value on Iran’s security and will not allow Iraq to become a launching pad for “harming” Iran, the state broadcaster said on its website.

Iraqi Defense Minister Abdul-Qader Al-Obeidi echoed that promise. He told his Iranian counterpart Gen. Mostafa Mohammad Najjar that the “agreement would not threaten” any neighboring country, and that no Iraqi government would allow the country “to be used for attack on Iran or any other country,” the semi-official Iranian news agency Fars reported.

Al-Maliki is expected to meet Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, probably today morning, but no official timing for a meeting was announced.

Further complicating Al-Maliki’s balancing act between Washington and Tehran are American allegations that Iran is arming and financing Shiite militiamen in Iraq, a claim Tehran denies. The Iraqi prime minister was expected to raise the concerns in his talks.