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Politics : Attack Iraq? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: calgal who wrote (2983)	11/15/2002 11:51:26 AM
From: calgal	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 8683

Iranians may aid U.S. war on Iraq URL:http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2002-11-14-iran-usat_x.htm By Barbara Slavin, USA TODAY WASHINGTON — Despite a campaign of mutual vilification, the Bush administration and Iran are moving toward quiet cooperation in any war against Iraq. A Pentagon official on Thursday acknowledged "preliminary feelers" between the two countries dealing with military emergencies such as downed pilots or naval accidents in the Persian Gulf. A similar arrangement was reached for the Afghan war a year ago. The talks are taking place through Arab intermediaries in a small gulf nation, the official said. Iran's Islamic regime has also approved letting a dissident group of Iraqi Shiite Muslims based in Tehran work with the U.S. military to oust Saddam Hussein, Tehran-based diplomats say. The group has several thousand armed followers in southern Iraq. Iranian acquiescence to a U.S.-led war is important because Iran and Iraq share a 730-mile border. Iran sat out the 1991 Gulf War but could be more accommodating to U.S. interests this time. Iran has already stepped up efforts to help the U.S. Navy catch Iraqi oil smugglers in the Persian Gulf by chasing the smugglers out of Iranian waters, Pentagon officials say. Tehran has motives beyond a deep-seated hatred of Saddam, who ordered an invasion of Iran in 1980, setting off a war that killed or wounded more than a half-million Iranians. Iran's leaders seek: To gain leverage in a post-Saddam Iraq. To ensure that Iran, which the Bush administration accuses of supporting Middle East militants and trying to develop nuclear weapons, is not the next target of the U.S. war on terrorism. To score domestic political points in a growing feud between conservatives and reformers. Conservative clerics who have the upper hand in the Iranian government still chant "Death to America" in public but would want to get credit for any improvement in relations, analysts say. The United States broke off diplomatic ties in 1980 during a crisis over the seizure of hostages at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran. According to a recent poll, three-fourths of Iranians want such relations restored. U.S. motives also are complex. Both countries backed the overthrow of the Taliban in Afghanistan. But in January, when most of the Afghan fighting was over and Israel intercepted a Palestinian ship laden with Iranian arms, President Bush labeled Iran a member of an "axis of evil," along with Iraq and North Korea. In July, Bush issued a statement that appeared to call on Iranians to overthrow the clerical regime. But in a sign of a thaw, a senior Iranian diplomat may be given permission to visit Washington for the first time in a year, State Department officials say. Iran's ambassador to the United Nations, Mohammed Javad Zarif, is expected to meet with a group of senators and congressmen at a lunch early next week. Zarif has also been invited to a reception Monday at the Middle East Institute, a Washington think tank. Zarif's visit would be the first by a senior Iranian since last October, when a half-dozen members of Congress feted Iran's previous U.N. ambassador at a dinner on Capitol Hill. Because the two countries have no diplomatic relations, permission is required for the ambassador to travel outside New York. Iran experts say both governments probably would view any cooperation as a short-term tactical maneuver. "I see some temporary improvement. But I'm not willing to bet on more," says Gary Sick, a professor of international affairs at Columbia University. Lasting progress depends in large part on Iran's tumultuous domestic politics. Thousands of students demonstrated this week against a death sentence pronounced by the conservative judiciary against a Muslim academic who called for a separation of religion and the state.