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Iraqi FM minister calls on Iran to focus
on supporting government
18.9.2007
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September 18, 2007
Prague, Czech Rep., -- Iraqi Foreign Minister
Hoshyar Zebari says that relations with Iran have
been hurt by Tehran's shelling of areas in
Kurdish-administered northern Iraq and its support
for anti-coalition militants in the south. RFE/RL
correspondent spoke with Zebari about Iran-Iraq
relations during the minister's visit today to Radio
Free Europe in Prague.
RFE/RL: Washington has frequently criticized Tehran
over supplies of weapons that reach groups fighting
coalition forces in the south of Iraq. More
recently, the Baghdad government has also protested
Iranian cross-border shelling that targets
anti-Tehran Kurdish groups that Iran says are
sheltering in northern Iraq. How would you describe
Tehran’s policies towards Iraq: helpful or
unhelpful?
Zebari: We have been very clear and direct with them
on all these issues: of the intervention, of the
usefulness or unusefulness of the role they are
playing, and we have been very frank with them that
on the one hand, politically, Iran does support the
government, the political process and so on, but we
have insisted that that should be matched with
action and deeds on the ground. And if there is any
desire to support the government, that support
should go to the government, not to militias, or not
to rogue groups here and there. |
Iraqi's Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari answers
questions during a news conference at Cernin Palace
in Prague September 17, 2007
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There is a lot we as
Iraq expect our neighbors to do to be more helpful,
and soon we will convene a meeting, a ministerial
meeting, in Istanbul where all these partners plus
the United States, plus the P5, plus the G8, will
attend at the ministerial level, and we announced
that it would be on the 31st of October and the 1st
of November.
RFE/RL: Turning to central Iraq, Washington has said
it is much encouraged by cooperation between Sunni
tribes and U.S. forces to fight Al-Qaeda in the
area. Do you see this as possibly also leading to
increased cooperation between Sunni nationalist
groups and the government in Baghdad?
Zebari: We've seen the fruit of that [fight against
Al-Qaeda] in Anbar, in many parts of Diyala, in some
parts of Baghdad, and so on, and this is a very
positive development, but at the same time we have
to be careful not to create new militias, that these
new forces really have to be integrated into the
existing Iraqi military, security, police
structures, to be part of the state forces and not
to act one against the other.
RFE/RL: Moving to southern Iraq, the British
government recently withdrew forces from inside the
city to the airport in preparation for reducing its
troop presence in the region. Is the Iraqi army able
to fill the vacuum?
Zebari: We've been reassured by the British
government, by the prime minister, by the foreign
secretary that Britain does not have any plans to
withdraw completely from southern Iraq, but this has
been in the planning, it has been worked out with
the Iraqi authorities, to hand over responsibility
in Baghdad to Iraqi authorities. Already, we are
moving troops, we are moving police units to fill
that vacuum in Basra.
rferl org
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