IRAQ - Resurgence In The Shiite World - Part 8 - A Centre For Salafi Terrorism.

That Iraq has become the centre of jihadi terrorism for the Salafis, a strain of Sunni Islam far more radical than anything the Shiites have ever seen, is a fact which not many in the Bush administration would want to admit. Many experts also find a link between the Salafi jihadis in Iraq and the July 7 terrorist attacks in London.

The Salafi groups, fielding suicide bombers and experts in kidnapping and behead-ings, have become the main elements of the Sunni insurgency in Iraq. They are not only targeting the Shiite Arabs, but also those Sunni Arabs who are co-operating with the US-backed government.

Iraq has thus become the main theatre in the US-led war on global terrorism. It is no longer easy for middle-sized powers like France, Germany or Russia to tell Washington and its allies they are on their own in Iraq. The Salafi groups are a threat to all regimes surrounding Iraq, notably including the Shiite theocracy of Iran. This is why Prime Minister Ibrahim Al-Ja'fari, who arrived in Tehran on July 16, has a US green light to negotiate a joint security pact with Iran as well as economic co-operation to include a settlement of war claims on Baghdad.

If this proves to be mutually beneficial, Iraq will become the gate for a US-Iran deal that may eventually resolve the nuclear crisis between Tehran and Washington which the Euopean powers want to see happen. A US-Iran pact should no longer be an impossibility, with the theocracy falling under the control of conservatives led by Supreme Guide Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Newly-elected President Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad will have a government in line with Khamenei's orientations.