Iranian Foreign Minister Meets With Iraqi Leaders in Baghdad

Iran’s foreign minister arrived Friday in Baghdad for two days of high-profile meetings with Iraqi officials and visits to sacred Shiite cities that underline the Islamic Republic’s pervasive new influence on its beleaguered western neighbor.

The competition between the United States and Iran has been one of the most complex, albeit slow-moving and subtle, power struggles in post-Saddam Hussein Iraq. And as Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki made the rounds Friday, the contrast between the two countries’ profiles in Iraq was glaring.

Unlike high-ranking U.S. officials, who often slip into Iraq for fleeting, unannounced appearances designed to give a quick boost to military or political morale, Mottaki’s schedule was lengthy and well-publicized. He arrived with a large entourage, and displayed little preoccupation with security.

Arriving just days after the formation of post-war Iraq’s first full-term government, Mottaki appeared determined to make a show of Iranian influence. Tehran’s closest ties are unmistakably with Shiite parties here, but prominent Sunni Arabs also appeared with him at one venue.

“We are here in Iraq sending a ... message that stresses unity of Muslims and says there is no reason for disagreements between the sons of the nation,” said Mottaki, the highest-ranking Iranian official to visit Iraq.

Mottaki’s schedule Friday included an intense a round of talks and appearances with top political and religious leaders. Today, he is scheduled to visit the Shiite sacred cities of Najaf and Karbala.

The foreign minister used the backdrop of the war-ravaged country in part to reject talks with the U.S. on Iraq.

Iranian officials first decided to meet with the Americans, but changed their minds, Mottaki said.

“Unfortunately, the American side tried to use this decision as propaganda to raise some other issues,” said Mottaki, who spoke with reporters in English shortly after landing in Baghdad. “They tried to create a negative atmosphere and that’s why the decision which was taken for the time being is suspended.”

He taunted the U.S. about the possibility of an attack on Iran for pursuing its nuclear program.

“We do not think that America is now in a position to create a new crisis for the American taxpayers,” Mottaki said. “The Americans know that in previous crises which they created, they were the first ones to be defeated.”

The foreign minister also made a point of reaffirming his country’s right to develop nuclear technology.

“The right of enriching uranium is a normal right of Iran,” Mottaki said. “It doesn’t need an agreement from any particular country.”

Standing at his side, his Iraqi counterpart, Hoshyar Zebari gave a carefully worded message of support for Iran’s nuclear program. Although Zebari insisted that the nuclear research should not be used to make a bomb, his statement appeared to mark a serious cleavage with the U.S. on Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

The United States believes Iran is pursuing a nuclear weapon, and has been trying to win international support to shut down the research through diplomacy.

“We respect and confirm the right of the Islamic Republic and the right of any other state to have scientific and technological abilities to research in the field of nuclear energy for peaceful uses,” Zebari told reporters in Baghdad. “We don’t want any of our neighbors to have weapons of mass destruction.”

During Hussein’s rule, Iraq and Iran were bitter enemies: One a secular, Sunni Arab-ruled nation, the other a Shiite theocracy founded on a youth-driven revolution. They fought a fierce war during the 1980s.

Now both the United States and Iran have an enormous stake in Iraq’s stability and have considerable influence on Baghdad’s politics.

The U.S.-led invasion, which helped empower long-oppressed Iraqi Shiites and Kurds, has allowed the Islamic Republic to gain unprecedented sway by working through allies in the two communities.

Iraq’s new prime minister, Nouri Maliki, spent time in Tehran and heads the Iranian-backed Islamic Dawa Party. After months of U.S. prodding behind the scenes, Maliki was chosen as premier and managed to cobble together a unity government last weekend that shares power among Shiites, Sunni Arabs and Kurds.

But the ultra-sensitive Interior and Defense ministerial positions remain empty. Unable to find candidates acceptable to all parties, Maliki left the posts vacant when he presented his Cabinet for parliament’s approval. With the closed-door talks grinding on, Mottaki met with Zebari and Maliki. He also visited the parliament.

Despite his country’s close ties to Iraq’s Shiites, Mottaki seemed intent on encouraging unity among the sects. Sunni Arab leaders reciprocated, appearing with Mottaki for reporters at the home of prominent Shiite leader Abdelaziz Hakim, head of the Iranian-backed Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq.

Sunni leader Adnan Dulaimi welcomed Mottaki to what he called the Iranian official’s “second country.”

“We hope that Iraq will not be a battlefield for war between the West and Iran,” Dulaimi said.

Meanwhile, bloodshed continued throughout Iraq. At least 36 people were killed, five corpses bearing signs of torture were found and scores of civilians were wounded in assassinations and bombings.

A car bomb exploded at a used furniture market in Sadr City, a sprawling Shiite neighborhood in Baghdad, killing at least 11 people and wounding 31. The bomb went off hours before midday prayers, a time when many Iraqis are shopping.

Later, a car bomb in a popular market in western Baghdad killed nine people.

And in a growing trend of violence against athletes, the coach and two top-seeded players on Iraq’s national tennis team were followed from a sports club after practice this week and assassinated, a tennis union official said Friday.

Coach Hussein Ahmed Rasheed, top player Nassir Ali Hatim, 28, and Wisam Adil Awda, 24, left together after training at Baghdad’s Hunting Club. Clad in track suits, the three men drove off through the streets of south Baghdad.

When they stopped to buy soft drinks, gunmen surrounded them and opened fire.

“They were killed, I think, just because they were athletes. Because as we know them, they are friendly with all the people, they have no enmity against anyone,” said Manhal Kubba, a spokesman with the Iraqi tennis union. “They were always busy with the game they loved.”

Gunmen stormed a wedding in northeast Baghdad on Thursday, dragged the groom and four relatives out of the party and disappeared. Their bodies were found Friday morning, dumped on a farm. Their throats had been slashed.