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Iran snuggles up with Iraqi opposition
  • Seif Ellahi, the official in charge of the Iraqi desk at the office of Iranian spiritual leader Ali Khameini is holding talks in Syria with the Islamic, national and Kurdish wings of the Iraqi opposition. Sources indicate a new Iranian tactic in dealing with the Iraqi opposition: openness to all opposition wings and working to achieve democracy in Iraq. The Iranian ambassador in Damascus organized a working luncheon for Ellahi which was attended by leading figures at the Iraqi opposition. Ellahi also met with the chairman of the Iraqi al-Watan ("Homeland") party Mashaan al-Jabouri.
    Iran would seem to be expecting Saddam's Iraq to go down. They also seem to expect the US to use the same technique: supporting an indigenous opposition, leading to an interim government. Having sat out the war against the Taliban, not out of ideology but because they didn't think it could be done, they're going to try and get in on the ground floor in Iraq so they can have some influence with the new regime. That's something they don't have, not yet anyway, in Afghanistan. Whatever successor state (or states) comes about, they can be worked, because Iran will have been there from the first. They may even start putting some significant money into the project, if it looks feasible.
    Posted by: Fred Pruitt 2002-01-06
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    http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=471