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Chalabi, in Tehran, Meets With Iranian President Before Traveling to
U.S. Next Week
By DEXTER FILKINS
11/06/05 "New
York Times" -- -- TEHRAN, Nov. 5 - Ahmad Chalabi, the
former Iraqi exile who has become a deputy prime minister, met with
senior Iranian leaders here on Saturday in what appeared to be an
effort to distance himself from them, just days before he visits
Washington.
In a series of closed meetings, Mr. Chalabi saw Mahmoud Ahmadinejad,
the tough-talking Iranian president; Foreign Minister Manouchehr
Mattaki; and Ali Larijani, the head of the Iranian National Security
Council.
Mr. Chalabi said he had spoken to the Iranians about an issue that
seemed likely to endear him to the Americans: the question of
Iranian interference in Iraq's domestic politics.
American and some Iraqi officials have long alleged that the Iranian
government is deeply involved in Iraqi internal affairs, by directly
assisting Iraqi political parties and private Shiite militias.
"The principal reason is to tell them about our concern about some
of the activities in Iraq," Mr. Chalabi said of the Iranians. "We
feel it is very important to address some of these issues, like
border security and so on."
Mr. Chalabi said he also made clear to the Iranians that the Iraqi
government would maintain close ties to the United States.
"It is important to emphasize and tell them very clearly that we
working with the United States and they have come to help us
liberate Iraq and that we are interested in having a decent Iraq,"
Mr. Chalabi said. "It is very important that they help us achieve
that."
The timing of the visit, which both sides said came at the Iranians'
request, suggested the possibility that Mr. Chalabi might have been
asked to carry a message from the Iranians to Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice at their scheduled meeting next week. Mr. Chalabi
is also scheduled later to meet the Treasury secretary, John W.
Snow.
Mr. Ahmadinejad, a strict Islamist elected in June, has become
increasingly isolated in recent weeks.
In September, the International Atomic Energy Agency rebuked Iran
for noncompliance with the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty over its
insistence on developing advanced nuclear technologies. In a speech
on Oct. 26, Mr. Ahmadinejad created a stir when he told a rally of
Iranian students that Israel should be "wiped off the map." After
those remarks, Kofi Annan, the United Nations secretary general,
postponed a visit scheduled for the coming week.
But Mr. Chalabi said he had not been asked by the Iranians to
mediate with the Americans. Mr. Larijani, the head of the national
security council, also said his government had made no such request.
Mr. Ahmadinejad, who appeared before reporters before meeting with
Mr. Chalabi on Saturday, did not speak publicly.
In an interview, Mr. Larijani reiterated his government's intention
to continue developing advanced nuclear technology for peaceful
purposes. The Bush administration says Iran is hiding its effort to
build nuclear weapons.
"The pressure they are putting on Iran over its nuclear program, it
will only result in more hatred for America," Mr. Larijani said,
reiterating his government's position that it did not intend to
develop nuclear weapons.
Mr. Chalabi's visit may be connected to Iraq's parliamentary
elections, scheduled for Dec. 15. The events of Saturday suggested
that Mr. Chalabi had embarked on a campaign to reposition himself as
a secular, American-backed candidate, and, perhaps, an alternative
to the Shiite alliance that currently dominates the government in
Baghdad.
Earlier this month, Mr. Chalabi said he had dropped out of the
Islamist-dominated Shiite coalition that dominated the Iraqi
elections in January and that was strongly supported by the Iranian
government.
While the exact circumstances of Mr. Chalabi's departure from the
Shiite alliance is unclear, Mr. Chalabi said he no longer wanted to
be part of what he described as an Islamist coalition. "My intention
was to give people in Iraq who are Muslim but who do not support the
Islamist parties a choice," Mr. Chalabi said.
Mr. Chalabi's move toward secular leadership appears to signal a new
phase in his political maneuvering.
As an exile, he was long a favorite of the Defense Department. But
after the American-led invasion, he took a harshly critical line on
the efforts of foreign military forces and relations with the Bush
administration soured. Last year, he aligned himself with overtly
Islamist leaders, including the firebrand cleric Moktada al-Sadr.
During that period, the Bush administration accused Mr. Chalabi of
divulging classified information to the Iranians.
Mr. Chalabi denied that charge. The outcome of the investigation is
not known.
In an interview following his meeting with Iranian leaders, Mr.
Chalabi said he had secured a promise that they would not oppose him
if he made a run at becoming Iraq's prime minister.
"Clearly I am not going to be a candidate for prime minister because
they tell me to," Mr. Chalabi said of the Iranians. "They certainly
expressed support for the idea that if the process is done locally
then they would not oppose it."
It was impossible to verify that assertion, but Mr. Larijani said
that Iranian leaders held Mr. Chalabi in high regard. "He is a very
wise man and a very useful person for the future of Iraq," he said.
For their part, Iranian leaders asserted that they had indeed
exercised a strong force in internal Iraqi politics, and they said
they intended to continue to do so. Last January, after the Shiite
coalition's selection of Ibrahim al-Jafaari as its choice to be
prime minister, rumors swirled about Baghdad that the Iranians had
intervened strongly on his behalf.
When asked about this, Mr. Larijani said the Iranians had indeed
intervened strongly with Iraq's Shiite leaders, but he said the
Iranians had not sided with a particular candidate.
"America should consider this power as legitimate," Mr. Larijani
said of his country's role in Iraqi affairs. "They should not fight
it."
Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company
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