ANALYSIS: Iraq's government caught between two rival allies

May 6, 2008, 12:47 GMT

Cairo- As tension rises between the US and Iran, Iraq's Shiite-dominated government finds it hard to juggle relations with its two powerful allies standing at the brink of confrontation.

Washington is accusing Iran of funding, arming and training Shiite militias in Iraq to attack US and Iraqi troops, while Tehran blames the presence of the US-led 'occupation forces' for the bloody unrest in the neighbouring Arab country.

Iraq's ruling coalition is dominated by Shiite political parties with strong religious and kinship ties with Iran, the largest Shiite Muslim country.

Many politicians from the ruling Shiite coalition spent years in exile in Iran and received considerable backing from its government before the collapse of the regime of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.

In recent weeks, not only have US officials intensified their accusations against Iran, but Iraqi officials themselves joined the chorus, said Zuhair al-Jazairi, editor of the independent Voices of Iraq news agency.

'The turning point came with the government offensive in Basra against the Shiite Mahdi Army militia and the ensuing fighting in Sadr City,' al-Jazairi told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

'It is usual for US officials to trumpet Iranian weapons discovery, but over the last weeks Iraqi officials too have come out publicly to speak about discovery of Iranian weapons,' the Iraqi journalist said.

The shift in the official Iraqi position on Iran has been mainly spurred by the fact that those weapons have a 2008 manufacture date, al-Jazairi maintained.

With the ongoing confrontation with the Mahdi Army of Iranian- backed cleric Moqtada al Sadr, the Iraqi army has found that the militia's arms supplies are being replenished with newly-manufactured weapons.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki appeared to have been so alarmed by the uncontrollable weapon smuggling from Iran along its 1,340 kilometre that he sent senior Shiite politicians to Tehran to convey his concerns.

Al-Maliki and many other top Iraqi officials have previously travelled to Iran, but this seems to mark the first time that an elite team has been sent to Tehran to raise the issue of Iranian meddling in Iraqi affairs, al-Jazairi said.

The Iraqi politicians returned from Iran Saturday with reassurances and support for al-Maliki's government. The positive response coming from Tehran did not cut ice among Iraqi and US officials.

The next day Iraqi cabinet spokesman, Ali al-Dabagh, issued contradictory statements on Iran's role in Iraq, saying Baghdad needed evidence for Iranian interference in Iraq. Hours later, al- Dabagh retracted what he said, saying proof existed.

The official contradictory statements highlight Baghdad's confusion over the scope of Iran's role, its ties with Shiite militias and the difficult task of juggling ties with Washington and Tehran.

'The Iraqi government is alarmed by recent weapon finds, but one thing is certain: it does not want Iraq to become a stage of a conformation between the US and Iran,' al-Jazairi said.

This view has been echoed by al-Dabagh.

'Iraq does not want to be pushed into any confrontation with neighbouring countries, especially Iran. What happened before is enough. We paid the price,' al-Dabagh told reporters Sunday.

The Iraqi official was referring to the Iran-Iraq war, which claimed the lives of about one million people through the 1980s.

Since the collapse of the Saddam regime, ties between both countries have significantly improved, especially under the Shiite- dominated coalition.

Baghdad will use diplomacy rather than confrontation to sort out the problem with Iran, al-Jazairi said.

'Baghdad has been acting as a mediator between the US and Iran as it attempts to defuse tension between them and avert a confrontation in which Iraq may be the main battleground, the journalist concluded.