TEHRAN/DAMASCUS, 10 August 2007 — An end to violence in Iraq depends on the United States withdrawing its troops, Iran told Iraq’s prime minister yesterday, seeking to deflect accusations from Washington that it is responsible for bloodshed there.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki, facing deepening political woes at home and US criticism for lack of progress in bridging sectarian divisions, won pledges of support from Shiite Iran during a visit to the neighboring country.
With Shiite Muslims now in power also in Baghdad, ties have strengthened between the two oil-rich states since 2003, when US-led forces toppled Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, a Sunni Arab who waged an eight-year war against Iran in the 1980s.
But the US military accuses the Islamic Republic of arming and training militias behind some of the violence threatening to tear Iraq apart. Iran rejects the charge and blames the presence of US forces, numbering about 162,000, for the mayhem.
Baghdad has urged both countries to negotiate and not fight out their differences on Iraqi soil. “We regard Iraq’s security as our own security and that of the region,” Iranian First Vice President Parviz Davoodi told Maliki as he was leaving Tehran, the IRNA news agency said. “Establishment of stability and calm in Iraq depends on ... the withdrawal of the occupying forces and an end to their interferences in Iraq and also on the authority of the government of Maliki.”
Maliki described his talks in Iran as “successful,” his office said in a statement issued in Baghdad, adding the security file was the main concern for both countries. Iranian media said the two sides had planned to sign security agreements, but few details were released about any concrete results apart from Iranian promises to help provide fuel to Iraq during the winter and with building a refinery.
Maliki, who also met Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and other senior officials, is facing mounting pressure to secure a power-sharing deal among Iraq’s warring sects before a US report in September on strategy in Iraq. But his government is in crisis, with almost half the cabinet ministers quitting or boycotting meetings, and the death toll from sectarian killings is steadily climbing.
Iraq’s neighbors, some accused by Washington of not doing enough to improve security in the war-torn country, agreed in Syria yesterday to cooperate with Baghdad in a bid to restore stability.
“The participants expressed a willingness to cooperate with the Iraqi government to bring about security and stability in Iraq and to build the Iraqi army,” said a statement read by the Iraqi delegate after a two-day meeting of the Iraqi Neighbors Border Security Working Group in Damascus.
“The participants examined ways of controlling the (Iraqi) frontier, of fighting organized crime and exchanging information,” added the communique read out by Lubaid Abbawi.
The Iraqi delegate said the participants agreed that “controlling the frontier is the responsibility of all of Iraq’s neighbors ... who have agreed to cooperate in building up Iraq’s security forces and army on a patriotic basis.”
US charge d’affaires in Damascus Michael Corbin, who attended the meeting as an observer, called for a clampdown on the flow of foreign fighters into Iraq. “What is required now is action on specific security measures that improve the security of Iraq and its neighbors,” he said in a statement.
Meanwhile, the UN Security Council delayed yesterday its vote on a resolution to expand the United Nations role in Iraq by 24 hours to give the Iraqi government time to review it, diplomats said. The United States and Britain, the draft’s co-sponsors, wanted to make sure that recent minor changes to the text were backed by the Iraqi government.
But Maliki was away on official trips to Turkey and Iran, forcing a delay of the vote until today, the US ambassador to the UN Zalmay Khalilzad told reporters in New York. “We wanted to make sure the final draft has the approval and comfort of the Iraqi government,” Khalilzad said, adding that he had spoken with Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari and that “they are satisfied” with the text. “We’ll vote tomorrow (Friday),” he said.
The resolution would extend the mandate of the UN Assistance Mission in Iraq (UNAMI), which expires today, by one year. It also paves the way for the UN special envoy in Iraq to “as circumstances permit” to advise, support and assist the Iraqi government in political, economic, electoral, legal, constitutional, refugee and human rights matters.
