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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: stockman_scott who wrote (162664)	5/20/2005 5:07:59 AM
From: geode00	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

While dumb and dumber rides a bike during working hours... "..."You've got two different trajectories, and I don't think the Americans have come to this realization," says Karim Sadjadpour, an Iran analyst with the Brussels-based International Crisis Group, contacted in Tehran. "The Americans have hard power in Iraq, but the Iranians have soft power, and they are able to do things. It is a much more subtle influence than the Americans."... But how great is Iran's influence with Iraq's leadership? Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari for years led an anti-Hussein group in Iran. In the early 1980s, the intelligence services of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini - leader of Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution - created the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) and its military wing, the Badr Brigades, from which many of Iraq's top leaders now come. On the Kurdish side, Iran has had the closest ties with the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan lead by Jalal Talabani, Iraq's new president. In 1996, when Iraqi forces launched an offensive into the Kurdish north, this correspondent met Mr. Talabani in northern Iraq, just strides away from the Iranian border. Parallel anti-Hussein efforts were covertly funded and supported by the US, most notably with Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Chalabi (who also has close Iran ties, and has been accused of giving US intelligence to Iran) and former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi. Last week, during a visit to Iran, Talabani declared that it "feels good to be home."... "When Iran has a friend in power [in Iraq], they want to see that government succeed. And when Iran wants to flex its muscles in Iraq, it can," says Sadjadpour. "The danger is if there is heightened tension between the US and Iran. The battlefield for that will be in Iraq." csmonitor.com