By IPS Correspondents
SULEIMANIYEH, Northern Iraq, Dec 11 2007 (IPS)

Iraq’s deputy prime minister has credited Tehran with helping curb the activities of a radical Shia Muslim militia, and he is also hoping Iran will do more to help stabilise its western neighbour.

“There is no doubt the Iranians have recently applied influence and leverage over Jaish al-Mahdi to contain and limit its operations inside Iraq,” Barham Salih said in an interview to IPS. “This is a welcome sign. But I’ll be very frank with you: the very fact that Iran can turn on and off the activities of Jaish al-Mahdi is one of concern to me as an Iraqi official.”

Washington has long accused Tehran of training, arming and funding Shia extremist groups in Iraq such as the Mehdi Army militia run by cleric Muqtada al Sadr. U.S. defence secretary Robert Gates repeated claims of Iranian interference on Saturday, and called Tehran’s foreign policies a threat to the United States and to the Middle East.

But his comments followed those of some U.S. officials who said in recent weeks that Iran appears to have halted the flow of arms across its border with its western neighbour, Iraq.

Iraq’s government spokesman has said the change in Iran’s behaviour came when Iraq’s Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki received a pledge from Iranian leaders on his visit to Tehran in August that they would clamp down on cross-border flow of weapons, money and people.

Tehran denies interfering in Iraq and has often blamed instability in Iraq on the presence of foreign troops.

Despite their mutual animosity, however, Iran and the U.S. have held three rounds of high-level talks on Iraqi security. On Sunday, Iran’s foreign ministry announced that Iraqi officials have proposed holding the next round Dec. 18.

Senior Iranian security official Ali Larijani said on Saturday that throughout this process, his country has helped improve security in Iraq.

“This time around, if the Americans pay attention to the fact that Iran has a prominent role in the Iraqi issue and can help – because of its moral influence in Iraq and its political influence – it can help the Iraqi government,” Ali Larijani said on Iran’s state-run television.

Salih declined to say whether he believed Iran wanted stability in his country. “The strategic interest of Iran should be (for it to be) engaged in promoting a stable, democratic, federal Iraq, as opposed to some people thinking they can work through cronies and proxies.

“Next to the people of Iraq, the Iranian people were the main beneficiaries of the removal of Saddam Hussein regime,” he added. “Instead of meddling in the internal affairs of Iraq, the government of Iran, the Iranian system, should invest in the stability of Iraq and make sure that the new Iraqi system is one that is at peace with its people and its neighbours.”

The prime minister of Iraqi Kurdistan’s regional government also said he believes Iran should want stability in Iraq.

“I think Iran must play a bigger role in the stability of Iraq, and Iran can do this to some extent,” Nechirvan Barzani said in an interview. “Stability in Iraq is to the benefit of all countries – for Iran and others in the region.

“We don’t know if the information that Americans have shown us until now that Iran is (sending weapons across the border into Iraq), is true or not. If it is, we think it would not be to the benefit of either Iraq or Iran.”

Mohamad Gouma, political advisor to Kurdistan President Massoud Barzani, however, said that at least in Iraqi Kurdistan, Tehran has been aiming for calm and peace. In recent years, Iraq’s northern Kurdish region has enjoyed relative stability and prosperity, compared to other areas of Iraq.

“Relations between Iraqi Kurdistan and Iran are good, both historically and today,” Gouma said. “It’s true that we have good relations with America, too, and also that enmity exists between Washington and Tehran, but we don’t play any role in their game.”

He added that if the U.S. one day decides to launch a military attack on Iran, Iraqi Kurdistan would remain neutral.

“We are opposed to war, and we would not have any place in such a war,” he said. “If a war would happen, it would be the biggest war that would take place in the Middle East.”

Washington has not ruled out using military force against Tehran over its nuclear programme, which the United States claims is aimed at producing nuclear weapons – a charge Iran denies.

When asked how Iraq would respond if Washington requests its help in a potential attack on Iran, Salih, who is Kurdish, said Iraq wants to stay out of the dispute.

“We do not want our territory to be used as a staging post for attacks against any of our neighbours,” he said. “We don’t want our territory to be used as an area for settling scores. Instability in Iraq will cause instability in the neighbourhood, including Iran as well, and everyone should be aware of the consequences of this instability.”

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