April 18, 2005
MEET YOU IN BAGHDAD:
Iraq key to US-Iran engagement (M K Bhadrakumar, 4/19/05, Asia Times)
President Mohammad Khatami was among the first world leaders to felicitate the newly elected political leadership in Baghdad. In a congratulatory message of undisguised happiness over the occasion, Khatami conveyed to Iraqi President-elect Jalal Talabani that it was a "magnificent electoral show" that brought the new government into office. Offering Iran's hand of cooperation, Khatami expressed optimism that "a secure, free and independent Iraq" would emerge and that with "vigilance and unity of the entire Iraqi nation" this could be realized. He expressed satisfaction that the democratic process in Iraq was running its course "without outside interference".Khatami's message disregarded the US military presence in Iraq or any sense of Islamic brotherhood with the regime in Baghdad.
Iranian media commentaries have been equally revealing. The Tehran Times lauded the fact that first and foremost, Baghdad had liberated itself from the "chauvinistic atmosphere of pan-Arabism" and had broken loose from "false Arab nationalism" - the "idea that Arabic nationalism was the cornerstone of patriotism". (Will the US neo-conservatives - and Israel - take note?)
The commentary went on to stress that Kurds and Shi'ites alike were victims of Ba'athist ideology and had been all these years "encircled in the web of pan-Arabist tendencies".
The Iran Daily hailed Talabani as the "first non-Arab president" of Iraq and noted that Kurdish-Shi'ite solidarity in Iraq was "clearly a positive development for Iran that has more commonalities with Kurds than other regional countries". It advised Sunni Arabs to "come to terms with and accept the ground realities".
The Iranian commentaries sidestepped recent demonstrations organized by Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr against the US military presence.
Thus, paradoxically, Washington and Tehran find themselves providing by far the staunchest outside support for the Kurdish-Shi'ite political axis that has emerged in the Iraqi leadership - that is, Israel's shadowy influence with the Iraqi Kurds apart.
What's paradoxical about the converging interests of inevitable allies? Posted by Orrin Judd at April 18, 2005 3:37 PM
Iraq just becomes the Western flank of our emerging Asian alliance, which is falling into place nicely.
Posted by: ghostcat at April 18, 2005 4:21 PMFor Iran to have even amicable relations with the US will require the end of the regime of the mullahs. Since 1978, the entire legitimacy of the Iranian state has been intimately connected with the fight against the Great Satan.
Posted by: bart at April 18, 2005 6:15 PM