Muwaffak Al-Rubaie

MANAMA, Bahrain, Dec. 10--The Iraqi government says the US needs to take bolder steps to interact directly with Iran in order to improve security across the Middle East.
Iraqi National Security Adviser Muwaffak Al-Rubaie warned Washington that a strategy of aligning its Sunni Persian Gulf allies against Iran would only further exacerbate tensions in the region, AP reported.
“The United States, until they seriously engage with Iran...the long-term regional security will be in doubt,“ Al-Rubaie said on Sunday, the final day of a regional security summit in the Bahraini capital Manama.
It was a sharp rebuke to Washington a day after US Defense Secretary Robert Gates called on Persian Gulf countries to pressure Tehran to renounce its nuclear program.
In a speech at the conference on Saturday, Gates appealed to Persian Gulf nations to support penalties designed to force Iran to suspend its uranium enrichment.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry on Sunday condemned Gates’ remarks.
“Basically, this expression is an intervention in the domestic affairs of the regional countries,“ ministry spokesman, Mohammad Ali Hosseini, told reporters.
Rubaie’s push for greater US interaction with Iran was an uncomfortable reminder that Washington’s greatest enemy in the Mideast is also the country most closely tied to the predominantly Shiite government in Iraq--the nation in the region where the US has the most at stake.
“It is feasible for the government of Iraq to have on one side the strategic ally, the United States of America, and on the other side, we have a good relationship with Iran,“ said Al-Rubaie, a Shiite. “I believe they are not mutually exclusive.“
Rubaie’s call for greater US engagement with Iran came as Tehran announced that it was studying an Iraqi proposal to hold a fourth round of ambassador-level talks with the US over security in Iraq.
Iraqi Vice President Tariq Al-Hashemi, a Sunni, agreed with Al-Rubaie’s assessment and said continued US moves to isolate Iran over its nuclear program “would make life more difficult for the Iraqis“.
“This is why I’m saying that the nuclear issue should be sorted out in round-table negotiations,“ Al-Hashemi told reporters at the conference.
Washington’s attempt to push its hardline policy against Iran was undermined by the release a week ago of a new US intelligence report that said Iran had no nuclear weapons program.

WASHINGTON, Dec. 10--The US Central Intelligence Agency is running a secret program aimed at encouraging Iranians involved in the country’s nuclear program to defect and spy for the West, The Los Angeles Times reported.
The report came after Iran sent a formal protest note to Washington for allegedly spying on its nuclear activities, Alalam.ir quoted.
The note has been handed over to the Swiss Embassy in Tehran, which represents US interests in Iran in the absence of diplomatic relations between Tehran and Washington.
Citing unnamed current and former “intelligence officials familiar with the operation,“ the newspaper said on its website on Sunday that the program called “Brain Drain“ was ordered by the White House in 2005 in hopes of undermining Iran’s nuclear program.
The report said the effort achieved only limited success and none has been able to provide good information on Tehran’s nuclear program.
“Potential defectors have not been approached by the CIA directly,“ The Times pointed out, citing a former US intelligence official.
Rather, the spy agency used other contacts it has cultivated inside Iran, the report said.
Intelligence gathered through the program provided much of the information for last week’s National Intelligence Estimate, which argued that Iran had no weapons program, the paper said.
Meanwhile, the intelligence findings have sharpened the debate in Washington as well as the presidential campaign over whether US officials should talk directly with Iran after shunning its leaders for a generation.
“Diplomacy can work,“ Senator Jay Rockefeller, chairman of Senate Intelligence Committee, said on Sunday as he urged negotiations. A dissenting voice from the campaign, Republican Senator John McCain, said the US should stick to back channels instead of high-stakes talks face to face, AP reported.
“Blackberrys work,“ he said.
Republican Senator Chuck Hagel, a member of the Intelligence Committee, said in a broadcast interview joined by Rockefeller, “We need to start talking with them.“
Rockefeller agreed and pointed to a breakthrough in what was long thought to be another intractable problem.
American and Iranian officials have held three rounds of talks at the ambassador level over security in Iraq, in a measured and tentative departure from a three-decade-long diplomatic freeze. They formed a subcommittee to continue those discussions.
Democratic presidential candidates largely agree Iran should be engaged more directly, while leading Republican candidates, including Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney and McCain, have expressed doubt such talks would achieve anything.
Republican Mike Huckabee, who has spoken in favor of diplomatic engagement, was caught unawares when asked last week about the intelligence report that was roiling Washington and the campaign. He misstated the circumstances of its release when asked about it on Sunday.

ASHKHABAD, Turkmenistan,
Dec. 10--Visiting Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki discussed bilateral, regional and international developments with Tajikistan’s President Imomali Rahkman.
Mottaki arrived early Monday on a daylong visit to attend the inaugural ceremony in Ashkhabad for the United Nations Regional Center for Preventive Diplomacy in Central Asia, IRNA reported.
The center aims to assist regional governments join hands to tackle major common challenges such as terrorism, drug trafficking, organized crime and environmental degradation.
Mottaki is scheduled to address the ceremony.
The Iranian minister and President Rahkman, who is also visiting Turkmenistan, discussed ways of enhancing cooperation among Iran, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan and Shanghai Cooperation Organization.
The two officials also exchanged views on Iran’s likely membership in the organization.
Mottaki is expected to hold talks with Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov later Monday.

TEHRAN, Dec. 10--Iran has never sought nuclear weapons, Defense Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar said on Monday.
The minister made the remark in a meeting with a number of his ministry’s senior officials, IRNA reported.
“Iran has never pursued a program to develop nuclear weapons as it is against the country’s religious, humanitarian and defensive doctrines,“ he said in reaction to the report released by the US National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on December 3.
The report, prepared by 16 US intelligence agencies, said, “Iran had put its bid to build a nuclear bomb on hold in 2003.“
The claim was made to prevent further humiliation of the Bush administration.
“The US administration is making accusations, instead of changing its wrong policies toward the Islamic Republic,“ Najjar said.

BRUSSELS, Belgium, Dec. 10--The European Union will pursue its line of offering negotiations to Iran over inducements to halt uranium enrichment while backing moves toward UN sanctions, the bloc’s negotiator with Tehran said on Monday.
“For the moment, the EU position has not been changed and there is no question of its changing. That is the dual-track approach,“ EU foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, told reporters in Brussels, Reuters reported.
He was speaking after the US intelligence services said this month Iran had no nuclear weapons program.
Solana has a mandate from major powers to explore the scope for negotiations with Iran.
Meanwhile, Iran’s former top nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, said on Monday there is no reason for Iran to stop cooperation with the IAEA within the framework of the modality plan.
“Cooperation with the IAEA within the framework of the modality plan has a good capacity and there is no reason to stop it,“ Larijani told a group of reporters on the sidelines of a meeting on “Nuclear Diplomacy and Foreign Policy of the Ninth Government,“ IRNA reported.
When asked whether he had offered a new idea other than the modality plan to Solana, Larijani, who is now the leader’s representative to Supreme National Security Council, said, “We have had various discussions with Solana on political issues, one of which was the modality plan.“
He added that Iran’s current nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili, and Solana are both making efforts in this respect.
Larijani noted that the time is ripe for Iran to open discussions with the Group 5+1.
“Iran’s nuclear case is going through an unusual channel but the strategy of resistance to reach the present point was correct, as a result of which Iran could acquire nuclear technology,“ he said.

TEHRAN, Dec. 10--An armed robber escaping from the police in Isfahan, central Iran, shot and killed a French tourist.
The Frenchman, who was traveling with his wife, was at a bus terminal in Isfahan, one of the country’s main tourist attractions, on Sunday when he was caught in the crossfire of a fleeing gang of robbers, Fars News Agency reported on Monday.
Fars quoted a police spokesman in Isfahan as saying that all the gang members were arrested, with the exception of the man who fatally shot the French national.
“The murderer, who also recently killed a member of the security forces, has unfortunately not been arrested,“ he said.
“Police have begun intensive investigations to find the man.“
An Iranian official, who asked not to be named, identified the victim as Julien van Waesberghe and said he had died of his wounds from the shooting after being taken to hospital.
The French Embassy confirmed the police statements and said the victim was 24 years old.
Meanwhile, Foreign Ministry Spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini on Monday voiced deep sorrow over the killing of French national.
The spokesman said the killer’s identity is known to police and a manhunt is underway to arrest him.
Hosseini hoped that the culprit will be arrested and handed over to the judiciary soon.

TEHRAN, Dec. 10--Iraq’s ambassador in Tehran, Mohammad Majid Al-Sheikh, announced on Monday forgers are issuing bogus visa to Iranian pilgrims intending to travel to Karbala and other holy Shiite sites of Iraq.
Sheikh added that Iraq’s Embassy in Tehran will refrain from issuing individual visas to pilgrims until it solves the problem, Mehr News Agency reported.
“According to the recent agreement with Iran’s Haj and Pilgrimage Organization, 2,500 Iranian pilgrims, (1,000 people through Shalamcheh’s border and 1,500 people through Mehran’s border), will travel to Iraq daily,“ he said.
The Iraqi envoy noted that security conditions in Iraq have improved and Iraqi officials hope more Iranians will visit Iraq in the near future.
He stressed that the Iraqi Embassy has received information about the activities of visa forgers in Tehran and presented a report to Iranian officials.
Sheikh stated that the embassy will issue individual visas only to businesspeople and drivers carrying fuel and food.
“Iranian and Iraqi officials are working on a strategy to solve the problem,“ he said.
He also said Iraq’s Embassy will send its envoys to Mehran and Shalamcheh to inspect the Iranian pilgrims’ visas.