KARBALA, Iraq — Pouring money into political parties, charities and armed organizations in a semi-covert campaign for influence and control, Iran has emerged as a silent and powerful force in postwar Iraq, Iraqi officials and Western diplomats said.
As a neighbor, former enemy in war and sometime haven for opponents of Saddam Hussein, Iran has long been a factor in Iraq's political life. Interviews with Western diplomats and Iraqis inside and outside government paint a picture of Iran seeking a new role since the U.S.-led invasion.
But Iran's internal divisions have muddied its goals in Iraq. Instead of working toward an overarching end, the Islamic Republic's clerics, political leadership and various military and intelligence branches are pursuing their own agendas.
Top political leaders in Tehran, for example, were quick to reach out to Iraq's interim government, hailing the end of U.S.-led rule and insisting that Iran would only suffer from bloodshed next door. Meanwhile, some Iranian intelligence cells were slipping money to insurgent groups in Iraq, Iraqi officials and Western diplomats said.
"Iran, unfortunately, speaks with a forked tongue," Iraqi Interior Ministry spokesman Sabah Kadhim said. The leaders call for stability, he said, but "every day we are catching people coming to Iraq [from Iran] with weapons. There are political parties backed by Iran."
The Iranian government is best understood as a group of semiautonomous power structures with sharply divided agendas, Kadhim said. "There seem to be various centers of power, and I'm not sure whether the official view we hear is really getting through. In a way, we are fighting Iranian politics in the arena of Iraq. Hard-liners and reformers are using Iraq as their fighting place."
Iran has called for the release of its diplomat, Faridoun Jihani, who was kidnapped in recent days by a Sunni Muslim group calling itself the Islamic Army in Iraq. The group said Jihani "had been involved in inciting sectarian strife and operating outside the sphere of diplomacy," the Al Jazeera satellite television channel reported. According to Al Jazeera, "The group also warned Iran against flagrant interference in the affairs of Iraq."
Defense Minister Hazem Shaalan went further and told Al Arabiya television this week that Iran was meddling in Iraqi affairs by sending weapons to Shiite Muslim insurgents.
