TEHRAN, 24 November 2005 — Iraqi President Jalal Talabani wrapped up a landmark visit to neighboring Iran yesterday, saying he had won promises of support for his government’s battle with insurgents and a $1 billion loan to help in reconstruction efforts.
Although Talabani carefully avoided leveling direct accusations against his hosts, Iraqi officials remain alarmed over what they allege is ongoing meddling in their country by the Islamic republic.
“Iran is interested in our security just as it is interested in its own security. We should use all means to establish security in Iraq,” Talabani said as he was seen off by hard-line Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Talabani, the first Iraqi head of state to visit Iran in nearly four decades, said his series of closed-door talks with Ahmadinejad and Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had at least seen pledges of support.
“They all said one thing to me: that there are no limits to Iran’s cooperation with and support for the Iraqi people and government,” Talabani said. He gave no details.
Baghdad’s new government is dominated by Kurdish figures like Talabani and Shiites who were backed by Tehran during ousted dictator Saddam Hussein’s rule.
But relations have been damaged by allegations of Iranian support for insurgents and fears that Tehran is using Iraqi soil to wage a proxy war against the United States and Britain.
Several Arab officials have also voiced concern over the confessional influence of the Shiite clerical regime in Tehran over events in Iraq, where the ousted Sunni minority and the empowered Shiite majority are at loggerheads.
Iran has repeatedly denied such accusations, “We are very sorry for what is happening in Iraq at the moment, and we hope that the establishment of a sovereign state in Iraq comes quickly,” Ahmadinejad said, asserting Iran was “thanking God that our brothers in arms are now holding high positions in Iraq.”
Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei also told Talabani on Tuesday that foreign troops were the cause of violence and that Iraqi authorities should demand a timetable for a pullout.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran holds the American government responsible for the suffering of the Iraqi people and all the crimes and assassinations now being committed in Iraq,” Khamenei was quoted as saying by official media.
“The presence of foreign troops is damaging for the Iraqis, and the Iraqi government could ask for their departure by proposing a timetable,” Khamenei asserted, adding that “the US and Britain will eventually have to leave Iraq with a bitter experience.”
In seeking to win Iranian help, analysts say Talabani has been taking a more diplomatic approach by avoiding making public accusations and using his long-standing relations with Iran’s Islamic regime to open doors.
His Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) has in the past been backed by Tehran, but has more recently been at odds with the clerical regime on border security.
He repeatedly thanked Iran, and its hard-line Revolutionary Guards who are now accused of meddling, for aiding the fight against Saddam.
Speaking on security at the start of his three-day visit, Talabani also said he was “sure the Iranian side will give us any kind of help to eradicate terrorism” — a diplomatic hint that the kind of help he wants is not yet there.
“Jalal Talabani can certainly open more doors in Iran, but let’s see what the result on the ground is,” commented a Western diplomat, who asked not to be named.
In October a furious British Prime Minister Tony Blair and other officials accused Iran and its allies in the Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah of involvement in attacks against British troops in Iraq.
Similar allegations has been leveled by US officials from the outset of the invasion.
