Iran's Influence Grows in Iraqi Holy City
Sun September 7, 2003 05:35 AM ET
NAJAF, Iraq (Reuters) - Seventy-year-old Badria sits at the steps of the gold-domed Imam Ali mosque, crying in disbelief that she has managed to see one of the most revered sites of Shi'ite Islam.
"I thought I would die without seeing it," said Badria, one of thousands of Iranians who can now visit Iraq's holy Shi'ite cities freely thanks to the downfall of Saddam Hussein.
Saddam, a Sunni Muslim, waged war against Iran from 1980 to 1988. He imposed strict limits on the number of pilgrims from Shi'ite-dominated Iran allowed to visit sites they revere such as Najaf and Kerbala.
Now age-old ties between the neighboring countries, both with majority Shi'ite populations, are being revived. That is a source of joy for many such as Badria, and of new business opportunities for others already reaping the rewards of a lucrative cross border trade.
However, some are worried about Iran's growing influence. Iraqi Shi'ites stress they want to take control of their own destiny. That means not being too dependent on Iran, which would have an interest in preventing Iraq's Shi'ite south from becoming too powerful.
Iran's leaders would not want to see the center of the Shi'ite clerical establishment move from the Iranian city of Qom back to its traditional home of Najaf.
"If the seat of the clerical leadership were to return back to Najaf, it would be a big loss for Iran's leadership," said Haidar Tweij, a Najaf resident.
SMUGGLED GOODS
But for many people the warmer relationship is simply good business.
A burgeoning trade has sprung up with Iranians coming across the border in pickup trucks to smuggle back pillaged copper, weapons and other stolen goods freely available in the many open markets of southern Iraq thanks to postwar lawlessness.
"The Iranian traders are coming here because a lot of the goods that were stolen are cheap," said Khazem al-Shareefi, a coppersmith in Najaf's Saha Maidan open market.
As Iraqis seek to satisfy pent-up consumer demand after years of sanctions, many competitively priced, smuggled Iranian goods from pistachios to Parsi Cola flood the markets.
But close religious ties cannot surmount long-held prejudices and a history of wars and conflict.
Najaf residents talk of Iranians who take up long stays in the city's hotels. They suspect they are secret service agents sent to keep a close eye on developments on the ground.
While local people say they are glad of the security offered by Islamic militias such as the Badr Brigade, they worry about its links to Tehran, which supported the group during years of exile in Iran.
Security fears after a car bomb attack last month which killed top cleric Mohammed Baqer al-Hakim and more than 80 of his followers brought the Badr militias out of the shadows.
They mounted night patrols and searches and rounded up scores of Saddam supporters.
"The top (clerical) leadership was being killed and no one was providing protection so they took it upon themselves to organize protection for themselves... But I wouldn't allow them to search my car," said Ali Sharaa, one Najaf resident.
Still, many Iraqi Shi'ites say Iran's religious establishment has done a lot for them, providing funds to help the poor and shelter for those fleeing persecution by Saddam.
That makes Iran the natural shoulder to lean on for Shi'ites who feel Washington has not fulfilled its promises to bring peace and prosperity to Iraq after Saddam's downfall.
Portraits of Iran's late Ayatollah Khomeini and leaders of its 1979 Islamic revolution are displayed in stores and popular coffee shops alongside those of Iraqi religious leaders.
"To be realistic, when Saddam was around, where did we find refuge? It was in Iran. When they come to us now, we can't say no to them," said Saad Sheblawi, a teacher.
http://asia.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=3400070Iran Warns of Weapons Inspection Pressure
By GEORGE JAHN
The Associated Press
VIENNA, Austria - Iran is warning the United States and other nations against pushing for too much too soon at a meeting of the U.N. atomic agency, suggesting that harsh demands could heighten nuclear tensions.
The meeting, which opens Monday, likely will urge Iran to make its nuclear program accessible by agreeing to a protocol allowing tougher International Atomic Energy Agency inspections without notice.
Under strong international pressure, Iran last month offered to negotiate the IAEA protocol. Delegates at the meeting also will ask Tehran to explain agency findings that the Americans and others say point to the existence of a covert nuclear weapons program.
Iran's delegate, Ali Akbar Salehi, said his country still was open to negotiating the inspection issue with the International Atomic Energy Agency, but he indicated the offer could be withdrawn.
Salehi, while not going into specifics, warned of "unexpected or surprising consequences" should the Iranian leadership decide the IAEA board was making harsh demands - in effect suggesting that such a move might escalate nuclear tensions.
"We are sitting on a very thin edge," Salehi said. "It could tilt one way or the other very easily."
The United States accuses Iran of working on a secret nuclear weapons program and a recent confidential IAEA report, obtained by The Associated Press, said traces of highly enriched, weapons-grade uranium were found at an Iranian nuclear facility.
The report also said Iran was conducting tests that experts say make little sense unless the country was pursuing nuclear weapons.
Tehran insists its nuclear programs are for generating electricity and says its equipment was "contaminated" with enriched uranium by a previous owner.
Kenneth Brill, the chief U.S. IAEA delegate, declined comment on what the Americans were seeking. But he said the United States and other board members believe Iran is trying "to evade international obligations and to seek the capacity to build nuclear weapons."
"It's fair to say that the majority of board members will want to see Iran ... enhance its cooperation" and "provide the answers to all the questions that are outstanding," he said.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said Sunday the IAEA did not share the view of the United States, "which pursues an extremist position and its behavior is politically motivated."
In an apparent victory for Iran, the Bush administration last week decided not to ask the Vienna meeting to endorse a resolution finding Iran in noncompliance of IAEA obligations - a move that could have led to U.N. sanctions.
Instead, the resolution being drafted likely will call on Iran to answer questions raised in the report and provide full disclosure of its program. It also could set a deadline for Tehran to comply, diplomats said on condition of anonymity.
Iran has said it would agree to unfettered inspections if it is granted access to advanced nuclear technology as provided for under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. Tehran says Washington's influence is blocking that technology.
Suspicions about Iran's nuclear activities prompted Mohamed ElBaradei, the IAEA director-general, in February to tour Iran's nuclear facilities, including the incomplete plant in Natanz, about 300 miles south of Tehran. Diplomats said he was taken aback by the advanced stage of a project using hundreds of centrifuges to enrich uranium.
http://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/93-09082003-155397.html