US-Iran security pact on Iraq 'will affect Tehran allies'

Baghdad: An Iraqi, Iranian and American security committee, following the talks between Iranian ambassador Hassan Qhumi, and his American counterpart, Ryan Crocker, in Baghdad, is expected to start working soon despite discordances at the negotiations about the intelligence axis for any American-Iranian security cooperation for Iraq, Iraqi analysts said.

But they predicted several setbacks for the panel.

Kadhum Attalla, an Iraqi academic who specialises in the Iranian affairs in Najaf, told Gulf News: "I cannot understand the idea of Iranian security cooperation with its rival, the United States, because it means that Iranians will provide safety to the American soldiers and at the same time plot against the allied Iraqi Shiite militias. This is unbelievable ... I expect the security committee will end in failure."

In the Iranian-Iraqi-US security committee framework, all the parties involved will cooperate to address the situation formed by Shiite militias, especially the Mahdi Army militia affiliated to the Shiite leader Moqtada Al Sadr, and Sunni Al Qaida.

Battling militias

An Iraqi political researcher, Wafiq Al Jumaili, told Gulf News: "As for Al Qaida, the enemy of Iraq, Iran and the United States, as Ambassador Crocker stated, Iran cannot cooperate endlessly because the strategic interest of Iran, which is set by the clerics in Qum, resides in continuous American soldiers' bloodshed in the Iraqi quagmire. Iran wants to see Americans vanquished and it is not working for their safety and comfort."

Some sources in the Shiite coalition led by Abdul Aziz Al Hakim, the Coalition and the Sunni Accord Party may reach an agreement to include elements of the Mahdi Army and some Sunni armed groups within the Iraqi Army as a solution to winding up Al Qaida's existence in Iraq and to halt the ongoing sectarian violence.

Yet the idea of integrating the Mahdi Army elements into any Iraqi security formation may face a strong American opposition.

Agreement

Gulf News asked a leader in the Mahdi Army, who called himself Abu Zahra, to what extent Iran will abandon their allies in the Mahdi Army.

"We cannot imagine an Iranian-American agreement about getting rid of the Mahdi Army, unless Iranians are to benefit by settling issues with the United States like the nuclear file.

"We in the Mahdi Army and Al Sadr group are self-dependent in resisting the American occupation," Abu Zahra said.

The Iraqi government in Baghdad, headed by Nouri Al Maliki, succeeded in gathering Iranians and Americans twice on bilateral talks.

The Iraqi government has set down abolishing of the Mahdi Army insurgents, who disobey the government and law, as a priority before entering into any bargain with Iran and the United States, especially when Al Maliki is convinced that most of the Mahdi Army's elements are gangsters and Saddam Hussain loyalists.