In an abruptly scheduled interview with the NYT, Iranian ambassador to Iraq Hassan Kuzemi Qumi speaks to what the Iranians detained in Hakim's compound last month were doing:

... With a look of restrained sarcasm, Mr. Qumi ridiculed the evidence that the American military has said it collected, including maps of Baghdad delineating Sunni, Shiite and mixed neighborhoods — the kind of maps, some American officials have said, that would be useful for militias engaged in ethnic slaughter. Mr. Qumi 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,” Mr. Qumi 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. ...

He seemed particularly keen to give his government’s view of what occurred in the early morning hours of Dec. 21, when American forces raided the Baghdad compound of Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, one of Iraq’s most powerful Shiite leaders, who had traveled to Washington only three weeks before to meet President Bush.

Within the compound, the Iranians were seized in the house of Hadi al-Ameri, who holds two powerful positions in Iraq: he is the chairman of the Iraqi Parliament’s security committee and also the leader of the Badr Organization, the armed wing of Mr. Hakim’s political party, which spent years in exile in Iran.

Although the Americans have suggested that the Iranians were providing support for militias like the Badr Organization, Mr. Qumi said that his countrymen were dealing with Mr. Ameri only in his official governmental capacity. ...

A senior Iraqi official expressed irritation that, even if Mr. Qumi’s account of the meeting was correct, the Iraqi government was not fully aware that Iran was making quasi-official contacts with Mr. Ameri.

The interview might be an effort to preemptively do damage control in advance of a planned American military press conference early this week to present evidence of alleged Iranian support for violence in Iraq. More here.

Posted by Laura at January 28, 2007 10:32 PM