BY ARDAN ZENTURK
STAR- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is in Baghdad! This is the biggest diplomatic maneuver since 1979, when Ayatollah Khomenei returned to Iran from exile in Paris. In other words, Iranians and Iraqis who are nearly 30 years old today have never seen an Iranian president set foot in Baghdad. The late dictator Saddam Hussein committed his first crime against humanity in 1980 by attacking Iran. If a neighbor of yours is experiencing a process of revolution within its borders, attacking it in that weakened state would be a big crime. Saddam did this in the thought that he would end the Islamic revolution on behalf of the West and the hope he would capture one of the most important oil fields in the Gulf. Of course, `modern' and `contemporary' forces backing him back then had already given him chemical weapons to be used against Iranian soldiers.
Things didn't work out as he planned. International balances never gave Hussein any chance of victory. Israel didn't want any Arab country to emerge stronger, and so millions of Muslims in Iran and Iraq killed each other, and nothing was accomplished. Hussein, unable to find what he expected in Iran and feeling trapped by the West, invaded Kuwait following the 1988 ceasefire and this started the current process. Ahmadinejad is now the leader of a few states which can determine Baghdad's fate in Iraq. Ahmadinejad is setting his foot in Iraq's south, where the only accepted currency is the Iranian riyal. Iran has organized groups that are politically close to it in the world's most strategic enemy region, and also created an economic area attached to it beyond its borders by using its own national currency.
Interestingly, Ahmadinejad's visit to Baghdad shows open support to Iraq's Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. The number one supporter and protector of the same government is the US, which is Iran's biggest enemy. Philip Reeker, spokesman for the US Embassy in Baghdad, said that the US sees the Iranian president's visit to Baghdad as part of normal relations between two neighboring countries. Even these remarks are highly important, as they show Tehran's importance in Iraq's future. We should also never forget that the US, which called Iran the leader of an `axis of evil,' has sat at the table with Iranian negotiators in Baghdad and negotiated the stability to be ensured in the country's south.
Obviously Ahmadinejad is trying to increase his country's bargaining power, as it is under pressure due to its nuclear program that he seems to be determined to continue. His visit to Iraq actually aims to prove that Iran is really a country which can come to an agreement and make real efforts for stability when necessary. Anyway. but it would be useful to follow one point closely and possible developments in the future very well: Common conclusions reached by Iraqi President Jalal Talabani and Ahmadinejad. This issue is also very important. Maybe the arm wrestling has just started over Iraq.