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Wednesday, August 8, 2007

'Unbelievable' trilateral security talks get underway in Baghdad

BAGHDAD — A new trilateral security committee in Iraq has begun meetings despite longterm and mounting tensions between Iran and the United States.

Analysts said the committee — composed of representatives from Iran, Iraq and the United States — would be divided over measures to improve security in Iraq. They said Iran and the United States would argue over the flow of insurgents and weapons into Iraq.

"I expect the security committee will end in failure," Iraqi analyst Kadhum Attalla, a specialist on Iran, said.

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"I cannot understand the concept of Iranian security cooperation with its rival, the United States, because it means that Iranians will protect American soldiers and at the same time plot against the allied Iraqi Shi'ite militias," Atalla said. "This is unbelievable."

On Monday, Iran, Iraq and the United States began meeting in Baghdad to discuss the authority and tasks of the trilateral security panel. Officials said the committee would discuss such issues as militias and Al Qaida in Iraq, Middle East Newsline reported.

"In the coming meeting, it is expected that representatives of Iran, America and Iraq would hold discussions by experts regarding the form and agenda of the security committee," Iran's ambassador to Baghdad, Hassan Kazemi Qomi, said.

The trilateral panel, approved in late July, was expected to be completed by September 2007. The committee was designed to discuss insurgency threats, particularly by the Iranian-supported Mahdi Army and Al Qaida.

Another Iraqi analyst, Wafiq Al Jumaili, agreed. Al Jumaili said Iran would not end support to insurgency groups that would hamper Teheran's aim of ensuring a rapid U.S. military withdrawal from Iraq.

"Iran wants to see Americans defeated and is not working for their safety and comfort," Jumaili said.

The analysts said they expected Iran to propose the integration of the Mahdi Army into the Iraq Army. To balance the Shi'ite influence, Sunni insurgents could also be invited to join the Iraqi military.

"We cannot imagine an Iranian-American agreement to eliminate the Mahdi Army, unless the Iranians benefit by resolving such issues with the United States as the nuclear file," Abu Zahra, a commander in the Mahdi Army, said. "We in the Mahdi Army and Al Sadr group are self-sufficient in our ability to resist the American occupation."

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