Iraq and Iran in heated exchange as security conference opens

TEHRAN, Nov 30 (AFP) - A conference on improving security in Iraq opened in the Iranian capital Tuesday with Baghdad and Tehran immediately trading recriminations over which side was not doing enough to fight terrorism.
With the meeting barely underway, Iraq's interim Vice President Ibrahim al-Jafari said he believed Iran had to do more to secure the lengthy border in order to prevent the transit of foreign fighters seeking to join the anti-US insurgency.
"Normally we do not need the help of others, but given the current exceptional circumstance we are ready to accept the help of our neighbours," he told reporters.
He said "the Islamic republic (of Iran) can participate in the securing of borders and prevent all persons from crossing, and not only people coming from Iran", a clear signal that Baghdad feels foreign militants are using the Iran-Iraq border to join the insurgency.
Jafari said he hoped to see Iran sign a security cooperation accord with Iraq, and said a better exchange of security information throughout the region in general would help see Iraqi elections held on schedule in January.
"The Iraqi government is very serious about organising these elections on time."
Iran's invitation to host the interior ministers or other officials from Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Syria, Turkey, Jordan and Egypt has been seen as a bid here to shake off allegations that Tehran's clerical regime has been fighting its quarter-of-a-century-old battle with the US on Iraqi soil.
And hitting back at a string of US and Iraqi allegations, Iranian Interior Minister Abdolvahed Moussavi-Lari said it was Iraq's authorities who needed to do more to fight terrorists -- given the continued presence in Iraq of the armed Iranian opposition group, the People's Mujahedeen.
"Nothing can justify the presence in Iraq of terrorist groups who cooperated with the regime of Saddam Hussein and who committed crimes against the Iraqi people and the neighbours of Iraq," he said in his opening declaration.
"We wait for our brothers in the Iraqi government to end their unacceptabble and destructive presence in Iraq," he added.
The People's Mujahedeen sought refuge in Iraq in 1986, and sided with Saddam during the Iran-Iraq war. They are currently confined to their camp northeast of Baghdad, but Iraqi authorities have yet to follow through on a vow to expel them.
But Moussavi-Lari did acknowledge "we need to reinforce controls along the border", and in this light he said "Iran is ready to train and equip Iraqi police and border guards."
Iran has consistently denied interfering, and has challenged its accusers to come up with hard evidence of an Iranian hand in the insurgency.
Security cooperation and intelligence sharing may also prove difficult to get off the ground given the difficult bilateral relations between Iran and several of the participants -- not just the new Iraqi authorities.
An example is Egypt, which has no full diplomatic relations with Iran due to years of acrimony over issues including Iran's alleged harbouring of Egyptian Islamists and Egypt's peace deal with Israel.
And while Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has condemned the US-led occupation forces as "infidels", Kuwait was their host before the invasion and supports the ongoing US-led campaign against rebels in Iraq.
While the conference is expected to result in a finely tuned joint declaration on the importance of improving security, diplomats question whether the Tehran meeting will be anything more than a show of good faith by Iran.
The top United Nations envoy for Iraq, Ashraf Qazi, nevertheless told reporters it was a "very important conference", and he said he was "looking forward to an agreed joint statement".

11/30/2004 16:10 GMT - AFP