Iranian
Diplomat Kidnapped In Baghdad: Another US Provocation?
By Peter Symonds
09 February, 2007
World
Socialist Web
The abduction of an Iranian diplomat
in Baghdad on Sunday evening has further heightened tensions between
Washington and Tehran, amid a continuing US military buildup against
Iran in the Persian Gulf.
US officials have denied
any role in the kidnapping, but the incident certainly serves the Bush
administration’s purposes by undermining Iranian diplomatic activity
and souring relations between Iraq and Iran. Moreover, while it is not
clear who carried out the kidnapping, several aspects of the operation
point to American involvement.
Jalal Sharafi, the second
secretary at the Iranian embassy, was abducted by gunmen dressed as
Iraqi commandos in the predominantly Shiite district of Karrada in central
Baghdad. Two vehicles blocked his car and Sharafi was bundled into the
one of the vehicles, which sped off. Police arrested at least four of
the gunmen after opening fire and disabling one of the vehicles.
Iraqi officials told the
media the men wore the uniform of the elite 36th Iraqi Commando Battalion—part
of the Special Operations Forces Brigade that operates closely with
the US military. All the captured gunmen carried official Iraqi military
identification that appeared to be genuine, according to US and Iraqi
officials who spoke to the New York Times.
The captured gunmen did not
remain in police custody for long, however. Uniformed officials with
government badges appeared at the lock-up and demanded that the men
be handed over, purportedly so they could be transferred to the serious
crimes unit. The detainees simply disappeared. Interior Ministry and
Defence Ministry spokesmen told Associated Press they had no information
and no idea where the suspects went.
Yesterday, Iraqi Foreign
Minister Hoshyar Zebari announced that four Iraqi military officers
had been detained over the abduction. He said they were being questioned,
but provided no further information. No one has claimed responsibility
for the kidnapping and no demands have been issued by Sharafi’s
abductors.
Iranian foreign ministry
spokesman Mohammad-Ali Hosseini condemned the abduction and warned it
would harm relations between Iran and Iraq. He held the US military
“responsible for the life and safety of the Iranian diplomat”.
Pointing to possible US involvement in the kidnapping, he added: “Based
on reliable information, certain agents behind the terrorist act have
been arrested. They acted under US supervision.”
US officials in Baghdad and
Washington have denied any role in the incident. Military spokesman
Lieutenant Colonel Christopher Carver declared that no unit of the Multi-National
Forces Iraq (MNF-I) was involved. White House spokesman Tony Snow told
the media: “We don’t really know a whole lot about it at
this point.” While Sunni insurgents, rogue military elements or
even criminal gangs could have been responsible, it certainly cannot
be ruled out that US forces engineered the abduction.
In his January 10 speech
announcing the escalation of the US war in Iraq, President Bush accused
Syria and Iran of supporting anti-US insurgents in Iraq and declared
that the US military would “seek out and destroy” these
networks. At least 10 Iranian officials, including two credentialled
diplomats, have been detained by the US military in two operations;
one on December 20 in Baghdad and the other in the northern city of
Irbil on January 11. The five detained in the raid last month are still
in US custody, despite protests by Iran and by Iraqi government officials.
The US has yet to provide
any evidence that any of the detained Iranian officials were involved
in illicit activities or more broadly that the Iranian regime is arming
Shiite militias in Iraq. A “dossier” purporting to prove
US allegations against Tehran was due to be made public on January 31
but its release was cancelled and no future date has been set. Bush’s
National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley openly admitted at a press
conference on February 3 that the briefing was “overstated”.
In an article on February
6, the US-based think-tank Stratfor, which has close ties to the defence
and intelligence establishment, considered US involvement in Sharafi’s
abduction quite plausible and pointed to several motives. “It
is important to note that Sharafi’s position at the embassy is
the kind of diplomatic posting that frequently would be a cover for
intelligence operatives,” the article commented. “So if
he were an Iranian Ministry of Intelligence and Security operative of
some importance, kidnapping him would disrupt Iranian operations as
the US security offensive in Baghdad gets under way.
“Second, the United
States has been very public in saying it intends to become more aggressive
toward Iranian covert operations as part of its effort to bring pressure
against Tehran. US intelligence has substantially ramped up the collection
of information on Iran—a move that would serve whether the goal
was to actually attack Iran, plan negotiations or just try to figure
out the mind of Tehran. The snatch of a second secretary would fit into
this effort.”
If the purpose was to extract
information, the US military could not openly detain and hold an Iranian
diplomat without a blatant breach of international law. Nevertheless,
as the Stratfor article explained, “an opportunity to question
him would be of real value to the United States. Maintaining plausible
deniability would be the key. But arranging for Sharafi’s abduction
by a third party would be a feasible way of obtaining the intelligence
sought by the United States. It is therefore quite possible that this
was a US-authorised operation executed by Washington’s Sunni allies.”
Whoever carried it out, the
US stands to benefit politically from the abduction, which directly
cuts across relations between the Iranian and Iraqi governments. As
it prepares for a military confrontation with Iran, the Bush administration
has adamantly refused to hold direct talks with Tehran to resolve outstanding
disputes over alleged nuclear weapons programs and support for anti-US
insurgents. The Iraqi government, however, is based on a coalition of
Shiite parties, all of which have longstanding connections with Tehran,
putting it increasingly at odds with Washington.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri
al-Maliki told CNN last week that the US and Iran should not use Iraq
as a proxy battleground for their disputes. “We have told the
Iranians and the Americans, ‘We know that you have a problem with
each other, but we are asking you, please solve your problems outside
Iraq’,” he said. “We will not accept Iran using Iraq
to attack the American forces. We don’t want the American forces
to take Iraq as a field to attack Iran or Syria.”
While the US refuses to talk
to Iran, top Iraqi officials continue to visit Tehran. Last week the
Iraqi government invited Iran and Syria to send delegations to Baghdad
in March for talks on security issues that could include other countries
in the region. The US, which has not been asked to attend, broadly welcomed
the meeting but did not comment directly on Iranian and Syrian involvement.
On Monday, Abdul Aziz Hakim,
leader of the Supreme Council of Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI),
publicly appealed for the US to hold direct talks with Iran, saying:
“All Iraqi statesmen support [US-Iran] talks and we believe negotiations
will bear many results.” SCIRI, one of the largest Shiite factions
in the Maliki government, has close ties with the Iranian regime. Hakim
was in Tehran to meet with Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The Bush administration,
which ignored Hakim’s remarks, has no intention opening negotiations
with Tehran. Far from wanting to resolve the disputes with Iran, the
US is casting around for pretexts to intensify the pressure on the Iranian
regime and prepare for a military attack. In the event of war with Iran,
Washington’s current Shiite-dominated puppet regime will rapidly
become a liability.
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