Iran/Iraq

Maliki tries to calm Tehran fears of proposed US pact

Article published on the 2008-06-08 Latest update 2008-06-08 14:34 TU

Nuri al-Maliki (R) shakes hands with Iran's Vice-President Parviz Davoudi
(Photo: Reuters)

Iraq's Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, on the second day of a visit to Tehran, has promised that his country will not be used as a base for attacks on Iran. The Iraqi government is negotiating an agreement with the US which would allow foreign troops to stay after the UN mandate ends this year.

"We will not allow Iraq to become a platform for harming the security of Iran and neighbours," said Maliki after meeting Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki late Saturday night.

Last November he and US President George Bush agreed to sign the Status of Forces Agreement (Sofa) by 31 July. But, after leaks of the content and criticism by religious and political leaders, Baghdad now says it has "a different vision" to Washington.

Media reports say that the US wants to keep up to 50 bases in Iraq indefinitely, control its airspace and guarantee immunity from Iraqi law for its troops and private contractors.

Shia-Muslim clerics have criticised the proposal and radical leader Moqtada al-Sadr has called for a popular mobilisation against it. And Iran, under pressure from the US and Israel over its nuclear programme, views the plan with suspicion.

Maliki meets President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and other top officials on Sunday.

He may raise the findings of a panel he set up last month to find out whether Iran is helping militias in Iraq, which Tehran denies.

Maliki, who lived in Iran during Saddam Hussein's reign, is on his third visit as a prime minister. Ahmadinejad visited Iraq last March, the first time an Iranian president has done so.

Washington is concerned by the apparent closeness of ties developing between the two Shia-majority nations. On Thursday US ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker admitted that, as neighbours, they had to have some relationship.

"The question is: what kind of relationship is it going to be?" he asked.