TEHRAN: Like any good guest, the new British ambassador here brought a present when he visited the cleric who heads the Iran’s chief foreign policy agency. It was far more important than a keepsake, flowers or pastry.
It was a message.
According to diplomats, envoy Richard Dalton reassured Iranians that there will be no place in a postwar Iraq for Moujahedeen Khalq, which is dedicated to overthrowing the Islamic Republic of Iran. Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, who fought an eight-year war against this nation in the 1980s, provides shelter and support for the militant group.
The religious leader, Hassan Rowhani, of the Supreme National Security Council smiled at the news, which diplomats said also reflects the US position. The Bush administration has labelled Moujahedeen Khalq a terrorist organization.
“This is a good sign,” said a senior Iranian official.”Iran’s concerns are being heard.”
On the surface, it appears strange for a Western power to be reassuring Iran — a fellow member, along with Iraq and North Korea, of President Bush’s “axis of evil.” But the United States, once branded here as the Great Satan, and Iran are rediscovering an old adage: The friend of my enemy is my enemy, and the enemy of my enemy is my friend.
For months, Iran discreetly has accommodated US plans to invade Saddam’s nation, aiding Iraqi dissidents and even helping to prevent oil smuggling by Iraq.
Both moves hurt Saddam’s regime while allowing Iran to present a constructive face to the West, in the hopes of broadening political ties to Europe and discouraging US perception of the Islamic Republic as a threat.
The policy, termed here as “active neutrality,” has its difficult moments for this predominately Shia Muslim nation. Iran, torn between fundamentalists and a restive population seeking political reform, cannot be seen as actively aiding the West, even against Iraq, a traditional enemy controlled by rival Sunni Muslims.
“After almost 25 years of chanting anti-US slogans, we can’t turn around and fight alongside America,” said a senior Iranian official. “Even Kuwait can’t announce that it’s doing this. That’s just the reality of the region.”
The presence of an armed Iraqi opposition group inside Iran poses an added challenge for Tehran: How to back the fighters’ ambitions in Iraq without running afoul of the United States.
Iranian policy-makers hope a cloak of ambiguity will enable their country to reap the political capital of accommodation with the West while keeping its Islamic credentials intact.
“When talking to Muslims, Iran is against war. But when talking to the West, it favours Iraq’s disarmament and compliance with Security Council resolutions,” said a senior Western diplomat in Tehran, who like many of those interviewed asked to remain anonymous.
Iran’s immediate agenda, diplomats say, is to have a key role in any decision in a postwar Iraq, consolidate its position in the region and deepen relations with Europe. These goals would strengthen ties with nations friendly with the United States that can lobby on Iran’s behalf, should hawks in Washington, D.C., advocate going after Iran.
“This is not proactive diplomacy, it’s damage control,” said an Iranian analyst.
With little to offer the United States besides agreeing not to cause trouble, Iran has tried to strengthen its position from the sidelines, through its special relationship with members of the Iraqi opposition, who have made Iran their tromping ground.
Iran offers the only safe, generally reliable land route for the opposition into Iraq, and it has increased its long-standing ties to the Iraqi Kurdish and Shia dissidents.
“The message is: ‘We’re important,’ and the target audience is the US” said an analyst in Tehran.
Since last fall, Iran has allowed the Iraqi opposition to expand its activities. For example, Iranian officials granted long-delayed permission for Ahmed Chalabi, the secular Shia whose Iraqi National Congress is funded by the State Department, to open an office in Tehran.
In the past two months, a flood of Arab foreign ministers and Iraqi opposition leaders — many carrying messages from the United States — created a mood of an underground conspiracy, turning Tehran into something akin to Casablanca, Morocco, during World War II. Iran also has stepped up its visibility.—Dawn/LAT-WP News Service (c) Los Angeles Times
