Iran plays down Iraq rift, seeks hostage release
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-08-10 00:49

Iran on Monday played down fresh accusations that it was stirring up violence in Iraq and sought to secure the release of an Iranian diplomat seized by militants in Iraq five days ago.

The charges leveled by Iraqi Defense Minister Hazim al-Shalaan and the kidnapping of Iran's consul to Kerbala highlighted growing mistrust between the two neighbors which fought each other to a standstill in a bitter 1980-1988 war.

Political analysts said the mounting tensions reflected the desire of Iraqi officials to assert their independence from Shi'ite Muslim Iran which, in turn, is divided over how best to exert influence in its western neighbor.

Shalaan, who has previously branded Iran as Iraq's "first enemy," said Shi'ite Muslim rebels were using arms obtained from Iran to wage a bloody uprising in Najaf where U.S. forces say at least 360 rebels have been killed since Thursday.

Asked if he still thought Iran was Iraq's prime enemy, he told Al Arabiya: "The facts we have say that what has happened to the people of Iraq happened from a number one enemy."

But a senior U.S. military official in Baghdad said there was no evidence Iranians were involved in recent Najaf fighting.

Iran's government spokesman Abdollah Ramazanzadeh brushed aside Shalaan's comments as typical of "a newcomer government which is naturally disorganized in the beginning."

Iran has cautiously welcomed the Iraqi interim government as a step toward full sovereignty and routinely denies U.S. and Iraqi accusations it is meddling in Iraq.

Ramazanzadeh said kidnapped diplomat Fereidoun Jahani was a long-serving Foreign Ministry official despite footage provided by his captors showing credentials in his name bearing the logo of Iran's Revolutionary Guards.

Militants in Iraq said Sunday they had taken a top Iranian diplomat hostage, according to video shown on the Arab-language Al-Arabiya television station. [AP]

Security experts say the Revolutionary Guards -- an ideologically driven branch of the armed forces -- has sent scores of agents into Iraq.

ALL A U.S. PLOT?

The Islamic Army in Iraq group which claims to be holding Jahani accused the Iranian diplomat of "inciting sectarian strife and operating outside the sphere of diplomacy."

Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi made no comment on that charge. He said Jahani was in good health and a committee was working with Iraqi authorities to secure his release.

Hardline commentators said the kidnapping and defense minister's comments were a U.S. plot to retain control of Iraq.

Analysts said it was difficult to ascertain what was behind Jahani's kidnapping since little was known about his captors and they had yet to make any specific demands for his release.

An Iraqi arrest warrant on Sunday for former Pentagon favorite Ahmad Chalabi, while unrelated to the recent Iran-Iraq tensions, could cause Tehran embarrassment should Chalabi decide not to return promptly from Iran to face the charges, they said.

Mustafa Alani, Middle East expert at the Royal United Services Institute, said ruling Iraqi Shi'ites like Shalaan and Prime Minister Iyad Allawi were playing up nationalist Arab sentiment to undermine non-Arab Iran's influence in the country.

"They fear the nightmare of Hizbollah in south Lebanon," he said, referring to the Iranian-founded and funded Shi'ite group which has conducted a proxy-war with Israel for decades.

A Tehran-based analyst said different power centers in Iran's complex political structure were trying to curry favor with different groups in Iraq ranging from the interim government to radicals like rebel cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

"The Iranians are divided over a coherent approach to Iraq and this is reflected in the contradictory statements and actions," he said. "The one thing they agree on is the need for the Shi'ite majority to be reflected in the Iraqi government."

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