Chalabi Goes to Tehran to get Iran to Stop Interferring in Iraqi Politics

Harold's List
Chalabi, in Tehran, Meets With Iranian President Before Traveling to U.S. Next Week
New York Times
by Dexter Filkins

TEHRAN, Nov. 5 - Ahmad Chalabi, the former Iraqi exile who has become a deputy prime minister, met with senior Iranian leaders here on Saturday in what appeared to be an effort to distance himself from them, just days before he visits Washington.

In a series of closed meetings, Mr. Chalabi saw Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the tough-talking Iranian president; Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mattaki; and Ali Larijani, the head of the Iranian National Security Council.

Mr. Chalabi said he had spoken to the Iranians about an issue that seemed likely to endear him to the Americans: the question of Iranian interference in Iraq's domestic politics.

American and some Iraqi officials have long alleged that the Iranian government is deeply involved in Iraqi internal affairs, by directly assisting Iraqi political parties and private Shiite militias.

"The principal reason is to tell them about our concern about some of the activities in Iraq," Mr. Chalabi said of the Iranians. "We feel it is very important to address some of these issues, like border security and so on."

Mr. Chalabi said he also made clear to the Iranians that the Iraqi government would maintain close ties to the United States.

"It is important to emphasize and tell them very clearly that we working with the United States and they have come to help us liberate Iraq and that we are interested in having a decent Iraq," Mr. Chalabi said. "It is very important that they help us achieve that."

The timing of the visit, which both sides said came at the Iranians' request, suggested the possibility that Mr. Chalabi might have been asked to carry a message from the Iranians to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice at their scheduled meeting next week. Mr. Chalabi is also scheduled later to meet the Treasury secretary, John W. Snow.

Mr. Ahmadinejad, a strict Islamist elected in June, has become increasingly isolated in recent weeks.

In September, the International Atomic Energy Agency rebuked Iran for noncompliance with the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty over its insistence on developing advanced nuclear technologies. In a speech on Oct. 26, Mr. Ahmadinejad created a stir when he told a rally of Iranian students that Israel should be "wiped off the map." After those remarks, Kofi Annan, the United Nations secretary general, postponed a visit scheduled for the coming week.

But Mr. Chalabi said he had not been asked by the Iranians to mediate with the Americans. Mr. Larijani, the head of the national security council, also said his government had made no such request.

Mr. Ahmadinejad, who appeared before reporters before meeting with Mr. Chalabi on Saturday, did not speak publicly.

In an interview, Mr. Larijani reiterated his government's intention to continue developing advanced nuclear technology for peaceful purposes. The Bush administration says Iran is hiding its effort to build nuclear weapons.

"The pressure they are putting on Iran over its nuclear program, it will only result in more hatred for America," Mr. Larijani said, reiterating his government's position that it did not intend to develop nuclear weapons.

Mr. Chalabi's visit may be connected to Iraq's parliamentary elections, scheduled for Dec. 15. The events of Saturday suggested that Mr. Chalabi had embarked on a campaign to reposition himself as a secular, American-backed candidate, and, perhaps, an alternative to the Shiite alliance that currently dominates the government in Baghdad.

Earlier this month, Mr. Chalabi said he had dropped out of the Islamist-dominated Shiite coalition that dominated the Iraqi elections in January and that was strongly supported by the Iranian government.

While the exact circumstances of Mr. Chalabi's departure from the Shiite alliance is unclear, Mr. Chalabi said he no longer wanted to be part of what he described as an Islamist coalition. "My intention was to give people in Iraq who are Muslim but who do not support the Islamist parties a choice," Mr. Chalabi said.

Mr. Chalabi's move toward secular leadership appears to signal a new phase in his political maneuvering.

As an exile, he was long a favorite of the Defense Department. But after the American-led invasion, he took a harshly critical line on the efforts of foreign military forces and relations with the Bush administration soured. Last year, he aligned himself with overtly Islamist leaders, including the firebrand cleric Moktada al-Sadr. During that period, the Bush administration accused Mr. Chalabi of divulging classified information to the Iranians.

Mr. Chalabi denied that charge. The outcome of the investigation is not known.

In an interview following his meeting with Iranian leaders, Mr. Chalabi said he had secured a promise that they would not oppose him if he made a run at becoming Iraq's prime minister.

"Clearly I am not going to be a candidate for prime minister because they tell me to," Mr. Chalabi said of the Iranians. "They certainly expressed support for the idea that if the process is done locally then they would not oppose it."

It was impossible to verify that assertion, but Mr. Larijani said that Iranian leaders held Mr. Chalabi in high regard. "He is a very wise man and a very useful person for the future of Iraq," he said.

For their part, Iranian leaders asserted that they had indeed exercised a strong force in internal Iraqi politics, and they said they intended to continue to do so. Last January, after the Shiite coalition's selection of Ibrahim al-Jafaari as its choice to be prime minister, rumors swirled about Baghdad that the Iranians had intervened strongly on his behalf.

When asked about this, Mr. Larijani said the Iranians had indeed intervened strongly with Iraq's Shiite leaders, but he said the Iranians had not sided with a particular candidate.

"America should consider this power as legitimate," Mr. Larijani said of his country's role in Iraqi affairs. "They should not fight it."