BAGHDAD — Hopes that Washington and Tehran might soon collaborate to help stabilize Iraq dimmed Thursday as Iran postponed a fourth round of negotiations and U.S. officials ratcheted up the accusations against their rival.
Lt. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, on his last day as the U.S. commander of day-to-day operations in Iraq, accused Iran of stirring violence to keep Iraq weak. The Iranian Embassy in Baghdad shrugged off the allegations as "mere rumors."
Late last year, U.S. officials backed away from sweeping allegations that the Iranian government was orchestrating the funding, training and equipping of Shiite Muslim militias that have battled U.S. soldiers in Iraq. Iran has rejected the accusations and blames the bloodshed on the presence of American troops.
U.S. commanders had said there were signs that Iranian authorities were keeping a vow made to Iraqi leaders last summer to help stem the flow of support across the notoriously porous border.
Lately, however, U.S. officials have reported a rising number of attacks that use the kind of sophisticated armor-piercing explosives that they allege come from Iran.
Odierno alleged Thursday that Shiite fighters backed by Iran were trying to reinsert themselves into Baghdad and "create some chaos."
"I think they are still funded by Iran. I think there is still training that goes on with these groups. They might have slowed the flow of weapons, but there are still weapons" coming in, Odierno told reporters after handing command to Lt. Gen. Lloyd J. Austin III of the 18th Airborne Corps at a ceremony in one of Saddam Hussein's former palaces in Baghdad.
"I think Iran wants a weak Iraq," he said. "We've got to realize that and the Iraqi government has got to realize that."
Iraqi officials, who have warned both sides that they do not want their country used as a proxy battlefield, said Iran was cooperating on security, such as by exerting influence over militiamen loyal to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada Sadr.
"They were in my view instrumental in reining in the Mahdi Army, and that led to a sharp drop in sectarian killing," Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari told The Times. But, he acknowledged, "the positive attitude which we have seen recently doesn't necessarily mean that they have stopped meddling, interfering or influencing events."
