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Tamara Chalabi, Ahmad's daughter, wrote a piece on her participation in a Iraqi National Congress delegation to Tehran for a week in June 2003, en route to northern Iraq.
Iran in support of ‘regime change’ in Baghdad
The week-long meetings in Tehran were a compelling game of seduction between westernised liberal secularism (best personified by Kanan Makiya) and committed political Islam as represented by the Iranian officials who oversee the ‘Iraq file’.
The game was played out around elaborate lunches (with non-alcoholic beer) and late-night teas, offered by our hosts with quintessential Persian hospitality. The discussions were as fascinating as they were endless. There was surprise too, as our hosts listened politely to our frank advocacy of democracy in Iraq, blunt rejections of an Iranian-style government, and elaborate renditions of meetings with high-ranking US officials that reflected a good relationship with the Iraqi opposition.
As a witness to these meetings, and beyond the different strategic and tactical positions, I was struck by the sheer competence of both sides. These Iranian officials displayed a level of knowledge of Iraq and its problems that I could not imagine encountering in the most advanced western think-tanks.
Of course, Iran is both neighbour and (in the 1980-88 war) recent enemy. But the detailed understanding these officials had of Iraqi society also informed their firm commitment to supporting an end to Saddam. Despite the traditional anti-US rhetoric in Iran and its branding as part of the “Axis of Evil”, the Iranians’ readiness to back an Iraqi opposition in alliance with the US was palpable.
Wonder, how palpable?
Meanwhile, am told to expect major Pentagon push back in the next day or so against certain aspects of the Chalabi story as it has been reported.
[thx to R]