Iran Tracker

Reaction to June 2009 Iranian Presidential Election:

In June 2009, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani congratulated Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on his re-election. Also, the head of Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council, Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, commended Iranian Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei for holding a fair election.[1] 

Nuclear:

Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari told Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki in a press conference in May 2006 that Iraq recognizes Iran’s right to peaceful nuclear technology but that Iraq does not want any of its neighbors to have weapons of mass destruction.[2]  Foreign Minister Zebari also issued a joint statement in September 2008 with the foreign ministers of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC),[3] Egypt, Jordan, and the United States, calling for Iran’s assurance that it is not seeking nuclear weapons and reiterating the Non-Proliferation Treaty’s obligations to cooperate fully with the IAEA.[4]  

In January 2010, the Iraqi government approached the United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency with concerns about an Iranian nuclear reactor constructed near the Iran-Iraq border.[5] Baghdad expressed its desire for a diplomatic solution to the potential danger posed by the Iranian nuclear installation and promised to cooperate fully with the IAEA to resolve the situation.[6]

Economic Relationship:

As geographical neighbors, economic cooperation between Iran and Iraq has been inescapable, even during periods where the governments have been at odds. Since the fall of Saddam Hussein’s Ba’athist government, Iran has offered to create a free trade zone on the almost 800-mile border between the two countries and open an Iraqi trade office in Tehran. Bilateral trade between Iran and Iraq has increased in recent years from $1.5 billion in 2006 to $2.8 billion in 2007 and $4 billion at the beginning of 2009. [7] Beyond bilateral trade, Iran has also offered to open Iranian banking institutions in Baghdad—institutions which have since been sanctioned by the United States for their support of Iran’s nuclear program—and opened a special taskforce for the development of Iran-Iraq trade. [8] The two states have created several border terminals and roads to facilitate transport of tradable items across their border and in February 2009 Iran won a $1.5 billion contract to build houses in Basra. [9]  Iran has also signed several energy deals with its neighbor, powering a number of Iraqi cities and towns with Iranian electricity.[10]

Iran and Iraq have agreed to increase their bilateral trade.  The two countries signed a memorandum of understanding in July 2009, which aimed to remove obstacles blocking the expansion of trade relations and officials from both sides have stressed the importance of province-to-province trade.[11]  In July 2009, an Iraqi provincial official, Abdul Zahra Kabian of Maysan province (which borders Iran in the south), openly called for Iran to invest in his province, invoking cultural and religious ties between the neighbors and adding that cooperation between Iran’s Khuzestan province and Maysan is critical for both.[12]  According to the Iraqi Oil Ministry, Iran and Iraq also agreed in a memorandum of understanding in September 2009 to invest in joint oilfields.[13]

In January 2010, Iran and Iraq finalized a deal in which Iran agreed to export approximately 19,000 barrels of diesel oil per day to Iraq.[14] The contract, valued between $500 and $600 million, would supply Iraq with Iranian diesel throughout the 2010 calendar year.[15]

Diplomatic/Military Relationship:

Both Iran and Iraq are Shiite majority countries, though Iraq is governed by a secular government while Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei has ultimate authority over Iranian political, religious, and social affairs.[16] Since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003, Iran has taken a keen interest in the Iraqi reconstruction effort headed by the United States. Iranian officials have publicly stated that Iran would be happy to replace the U.S. in the reconstruction effort and have frequently criticized American tactics in Iraq. [17] Iran’s ambassador to Iraq has also claimed that Iran plans to expand its economic and military ties with its neighbor. [18] Such offers have caused concern for American and allied forces in Iraq as they have accused Tehran of detrimentally meddling in the reconstruction of Iraq. According to Admiral Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the U.S. military has evidence of Iranian weapons flowing into the hands of Iraqi insurgents, threatening the security of the new Iraqi government. [19] Great Britain also claimed that Iran has been "backing, financing, arming and supporting terrorism in Iraq." [20]

In May 2009, the Iraqi government accused Iran of shelling Kurdish towns on the border between the two countries and summoned the Iranian ambassador to Baghdad, Hassan Kazemi-Qomi, to the Foreign Ministry to issue an official complaint.[21]  Iran has denied any allegations of support for militias and insurgent groups in Iraq, however, saying its interest would be better served by a stable neighboring country. [22] In June 2009, Iraqi Government Spokesman Ali Dabbaq also dismissed accusations that Iran played a role in political and military instability in Iraq, saying that "[r]elations between Iran and Iraq are friendly and there is no acute or fundamental problem between the two countries."[23]

Despite disagreements, Iran maintains close ties with members of the Iraqi government and the two governments have increased high-level visits to one another’s capitols in 2009.[24]  These followed Ahmadinejad’s first official visit to Iraq in March 2008.[25]  Iraqi National Security Advisor Muwaffaq al-Rubay'i paid an official visit to Tehran in July 2009, ten days after Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki visited the Iranian capital.  Al-Rubay’i claimed he was visiting Iran to “strengthen the brotherly relations between the two countries, institutionalize the security agreements with Iran and make some arrangements to carry out the two sides' policies in the region and in international organizations.”[26]

Border disputes between Iran and Iraq increased during the final months of 2009 when Iraq moved to auction development rights to oil fields near the Iranian border. Tehran responded in December 2009 by occupying an Iraqi oil well in the Iraqi Maysan province.[27] Iran disputes Iraqi ownership of the land and the Iranian military released a statement “[denying] that Iranian troops seized an oil well inside Iraq” while an Iranian flag flew over the well.[28] The stand-off lasted for three days in the area around the Fakka field, a territory that Iraq unsuccessfully sought to sell to international oil companies in June 2009.[29] Iranian forces also damaged an oil pipeline in northern Iraq during the incursion.[30] Officials in Tehran labeled the incident a misunderstanding, saying, “we think it is a technical and expert issue and the experts of both sides should sit down and look into ... specifying the border areas between the two countries so that such misunderstandings are removed.”[31] The two countries agreed to pursue diplomatic negotiations to settle the oil well dispute after several days of tense relations.[32] In January 2010, Iranian Ambassador to Iraq Hassan Kazemi Qomi said border agreements between the two countries are based on earlier accords which would be used as the starting point in talks to normalize Iran-Iraq border relations.[33] Both sides have decided to form a joint technical group to discuss border signals.[34]

[Click here for more information on Iranian soft power in Iraq.]