Baghdad, May 7, (VOI — Voices of Iraq) — Iraq’s ambassador in Washington said on Wednesday that the majority of Iraqi Shiites maintain strong nationalistic ties to Iraq, noting that they in fact present a threat to the Iranian state rather than the other way around.

Ambassador Samir Sumadia’ie said that a high-level committee will investigate Iran’s role in arms trafficking across his country’s borders, after the discovery of large caches of weapons and explosive devices recently. “It’s a bit disingenuous to believe such quantities of up-to-date weapons manufactured this year, last year, can flow into the country without the knowledge of the Iranian government,” he told editors and reporters at The Washington Times.

“I understand, however, that Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki ordered the formation of the committee only in the last 48 hours to put facts together, to establish where the connection is between these weapons and evidence of training so that we can basically confront our Iranian neighbors,” he added. The committee will include the ministers of interior and defense and will gauge the full facts of the situation.

“U.S. counterterrorism officials said Iran has increased weapons supplies in recent months, adding that the Iranian government wants to diminish U.S. and Iraqi coalition efforts in the region,” The Washington Times reported. “There continues to be a disturbing flow of arms from Iran to Iranian-backed groups inside of Iraq and there are some indications that the flow is increasing,” the paper quoted a counterterrorism official as saying.

Amb. Sumaida’ie said that despite an eight-year war with Iran during the 1980s, under the Sunni-dominated regime of Saddam Hussein, the current Iraqi Shiite militias — and specifically those of anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr — have formed close ties with Tehran.

He said the majority of Shiites in his country maintain strong nationalistic ties to Iraq. “In fact, the Iraqi Shiite presents a threat to the Iranian state rather than the other way around,” he said.

He explained had that Sheik al-Sadr been arrested in 2004 the current militia uprising may have been avoided.

He said the United States was only moments away from arresting Sheik al-Sadr when “somebody in Washington got cold feet,”

He added that the Iraqi government could not carry out Sheik al-Sadr’s arrest after the U.S. backed down because it did not have the necessary strength at the time.

Mr. Sumaida’ie said the Iraqi government is trying to recover from mistakes and must deal with many complex social, political and economic issues. For example, “The disbanding of the police was much more catastrophic than the disbanding of the army because at the level of local neighborhoods we lost control of law and order,”

My comments:

This is an interesting statement from the Iraqi ambassador. Paul Bremer refers to the arrest warrant for al-Sadr in his book. I agree that Iraqi Shiites can become a stronger influence on Iran than Iranians can on Iraq — in the long run. Iraqi Shiites consider themselves the original Shiites and they host the major schools for that study the Hauza is in Nejaf (Grand School of the Grand Ayatollah). Nejaf and Karbala are the Vatican of the Shiites. In the past and till now, Iranian Shiites look to Nejaf, Iraq, for religious guidance and if there is a conflict between instruction from Nejaf and Qum, Iran, Nejaf will be considered the higher authority. A number of Iranian references who disagree with Iran’s government have sought refuge in Nejaf to escape harassment and in some cases persecution.

While hindsight is always 20/20 we should also learn from it. Just as when Bin Laden was offered to us and we did not take him. Al-Sadr could have been stopped early. In the Middle East early decisive action is needed when dealing with unreasonable individuals with demonic visions. If there is a main trait that Middle Easterners have it is to wait and wait out those with whom you are trying to deal. .

On Monday the Prime Minister of Iraq addressed the Iraqi Parliament. He updated the parliament on the operations in Basra and Mosul (in which the Iraqi security forces are in the lead) and Sadr City, in Baghdad. He also announced over $5 billion (Iraqi funded) in strategic development projects. They will focus on improving all types of public services, with special emphasis on higher education and research and science institutions.

In Basra, citizens are reporting that life is returning to normal. One female college student says it is like liberation. She is referring to getting rid of the armed gangs and out laws, which ruled many neighborhoods. Storeowners are open without having to pay for protection to armed gangs. Many more symptoms are prompting Basra officials to declare that life is returning to normal there.

Haider Ajina was born in Baghdad. He lives in McKinleyville.