Our Partner in Iraq

Via Harry Shearer, I learned that we have a new member of the Coalition of the Willing in Iraq: Iran.

EVEN as politicians in Tehran and Washington stoked the fires of confrontation last week, America was said to have been asking Iran for help in calming the violence in Iraq.

A senior Iranian intelligence official showed Channel 4 News a letter in Persian purportedly signed by Zalmay Khalilzad, the US ambassador in Baghdad, inviting Iranian representatives to Iraq for talks.

Last November Khalilzad — who speaks Persian and dealt with the Iranians during negotiations over Afghanistan — said he had been authorised by President George W Bush to try to engage Iran and that its co-operation was needed to secure long-term peace in Iraq.

Most of Iraq’s senior Shi’ite politicians lived in exile in Iran during the latter years of Saddam Hussein’s rule, and the British and the Americans have both accused Iranian elements of arming and training Shi’ite militant groups.

The Iranian official claimed the invitation was renewed two weeks ago, just as America ratcheted up the rhetoric over Iran’s nuclear programme.

This is kind of amazing, and I doubt it will ever get reported in this country. This week, the UN Security Council is debating Iran and we're talking very tough, saying that military options are still on the table. We've gone so far as to warn Iran against meddling in Iraq, even claiming that they have been funneling money through Syria to fund the insurgency (which is simply ridiculous is you know the geopolitics of it).

But behind the scenes, we're asking them for help. Iran appears to have already achieved their objectives in Iraq (getting a religious Shiite theocracy into power), so what is the incentive for them to intervene to keep the peace there? Well, surely they would like to make it part of a broader discussion: namely, "we'll help you in Iraq if we can develop our civilian nuclear program. Such a devil's bargain would be stupid, but with a White House verging on desperation with regard to Iraq policy, they might give away the goose. It's not like we haven't traded arms with the Iranians before.

Iran also appears to be gearing up for war:

The talk all week in Tehran has been of war. The Iranian people are being prepared. On the eve of the International Atomic Energy Agency meeting in Vienna, Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad addressed a huge crowd in the town of Khorramabad, in the mountainous southwest of the country. He invoked the spectre of the 1980-88 war with Iraq, and Iran’s continuing isolation.

“Today humanity is caught in a web of powerful nations who bully us to follow their ways,” he said. “They hit you on the head and you’re not supposed to moan. When they see a brave nation like Iran standing strong it makes them angry. The world must know that if anyone tries to violate the rights of the Iranian nation, we will place the blot of shame and regret on their forehead.”

The crowd roared and waved posters of the diminutive, bearded president who has come to symbolise Iran’s determination to enrich uranium whatever the political or diplomatic cost.

This is a dangerous, combustible game of realpolitik we're playing, and I don't trust the players to get it right. Not one bit.