IRAQ - Iran Looks To Expand Its Iraq Role.

The New York Times on Jan. 29 quoted the Iranian Ambassador to Baghdad, Hassan Kazemi-Qomi, as outlining an ambitious plan to greatly expand his country's economic and military ties with Iraq - including an Iranian national bank branch in the heart of the capital - just as the Bush administration has been warning the Iranians to stop meddling in Iraqi affairs.

Qomi said Iran was prepared to offer Iraqi forces training, equipment and advisers for what he called "the security fight". In the economic area, Qomi said, Iran was ready to assume major responsibility for the reconstruction of Iraq, an area of notable failure on the part of the US since American-led forces overthrew Saddam in the 2003 invasion. Qomi acknowledged, for the first time, that two Iranians seized and later released by US forces recently were security officials, as the US had maintained. But he said they were engaged in legitimate discussions with the Iraqi government and should not have been detained.

The paper said Qomi's remarks, in a 90-minute interview at the Iranian Embassy in Baghdad, "amounted to the most authoritative and substantive response the Iranians have made yet to increasingly belligerent accusations" by the US that Iran was acting against US interests in Iraq. The paper said: "The Iranian ambassador abruptly agreed to a longstanding request for the interview - made repeatedly after the first...[US] seizure of Iranians here on Dec. 21 - and seemed eager to rebut the accusations and assert Iran's legitimate interests in its neighbor.

"The political and diplomatic standoff that followed the Dec. 21 raid until the Iranians were released nine days later has contributed, along with a dispute over the Iranian nuclear program, to greatly increased tensions between the United States and Iran. This month, American forces detained five more Iranians in a raid on a diplomatic office in the northern city of Erbil.

"While providing few details, the United States has said that evidence gleaned in the Baghdad raid, made on the residential compound of an Iraqi Shiite leader, proves the Iranians were involved in planning attacks on American and Iraqi forces. Qomi minimized the evidence that the American military has said it collected, including maps of Baghdad delineating Sunni, Shiite and mixed neighborhoods - the kinds of maps, some US officials have said, that would be useful for militias engaged in ethnic slaughter.

"Qomi said the maps were so common and easily obtainable that they proved nothing. He did not say whether he believed the maps bore sectarian markings or address other pieces of evidence the Americans said that they had found, like manifests of weapons and material relating to the technology of sophisticated roadside bombs. But that is not why the Iranians were in the compound, he said. 'They worked in the security sector in the Islamic Republic, that's clear', Qomi said, referring to Iran. But he said that the Iranians were in Iraq because 'the two countries agreed to solve the security problems'. The Iranians 'went to meet with the Iraqi side', he said.

"In a surprise disclosure, Qomi said Iran would soon open the national bank branch in Iraq, in effect creating a new Iranian financial institution right under the noses of the Americans. A senior Iraqi banking official, Hussein al-Uzri, confirmed that Iran had received a license to open the new bank, which Uzri said would apparently be the first wholly owned subsidiary bank of a foreign country in Iraq. 'This will enhance trade between the two countries', Uzri said. A number of US and Iraqi officials said Sunday (Jan. 28) that it was difficult to respond to Qomi's statements until they had been communicated through official channels.

"A spokesman for the US Embassy in Baghdad, Lou Fintor, declined to address the statements directly, but said that the US-led forces here continued 'to assist the Iraqi government in securing its borders and preventing foreign interference in Iraqi affairs'. Sean McCormack, a State Department spokesman, said Sunday (Jan. 28) that the United States had a significant body of evidence tying Iran to sectarian attacks inside Iraq. He did not address any of the specifics of the comments made by Qomi about the Iranian plans for stronger economic and security ties in Iraq, but said that Iraq currently was playing 'a negative role in many respects' in the country.

"Iraqi officials also said that they could not comment on specific programs until they had seen the details, but expressed a range of views on the wisdom of expanding ties with Iran. Those views were generally colored by Iran's stated criticism of the American presence in Iraq, a position Qomi reiterated. 'We are welcoming all the initiatives to participate in the process of reconstruction', said Qasim Daoud, a former national security adviser who is now a secular Shiite member of the Parliament representing the holy city of Najaf, a major destination of Iranian Shiite pilgrims. 'My belief is that our strategic alliance is with the Americans, but at the same time we are looking for the participation of any country that would like to participate', Daoud said.

"Barham Salih, a deputy prime minister who is Kurdish and whose duties include economic matters, took sharper issue with Qomi's criticism of the American presence. 'Iraqi national interest requires seeking good neighborly relations with Iran as with other neighbors, but that requires respect for Iraqi sovereignty', Salih said. 'Our national interest requires close partnership with the United States and the coalition in fighting terrorism and extremism. It is not for others to define our interest'".