Could Iran broker an end to anti-US Shiite unrest in Iraq?

The Iranian delegation was headed to the holy Shiite city of Najaf at the time of the killing, reportedly to help broker a peace deal between the US and radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

The group, headed by Iranian Foreign Ministry official Hussein Sedeqi, met Wednesday evening with Massoud Barzani, the current president of the US-appointed Iraqi Governing Council. Council member Mahmoud Othman said the talks were "positive" and that the Iranians expressed willingness to mediate the US dispute with Mr. Sadr, reports The Associated Press. However, the BBC reports that the delegation "brushed off suggestions it is mediating between the US and Mr. Sadr, saying it is merely 'assessing' the situation."

In a likely portent of difficulty for any possible upcoming negotiations, a spokesman for the Iranian foreign ministry, Hamid Reza Assefi, denounced the assassination and blamed the United States for the conflict. "The insecurity, anarchy, and the blood that is being spilled in Iraq today is because of United States' wrong and unwise policies in the region," Mr. Assefi said in Tehran. "The only solution to this crisis is for the occupiers to leave and allow the Iraqis to run the affairs of their country."

04/14/04 So how did the president do? 04/13/04 Showdown in Najaf 04/12/04 Did the US miscalculate in Iraq?

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Senior US officials say that Britain, not the US, invited Iran to Iraq, reports Voice of America. If the Iranian group does mediate the conflict, it would mark a significant moment of cooperation, not only between the US and Iran, but also between Iraq and Iran, who fought a bitter war in the 80s.

Meanwhile, heavy fighting continued to flare up in the volatile Sunni-triangle city of Fallujah, despite a four-day truce called to allow iraqi negotiators to try to end to violence. More than 900 Iraqis have been killed in the month of April, many of them civilians in Fallujah. The city has been a hot-bed of anti-coalition resistance since Saddam Hussein's ouster last spring.

Numerous media sources point to the US assault as a key factor in increasing anti-coalition hostility among many Iraqis. The Christian Science Monitor reports that, "Iraqi leaders and foreign analysts say the fighting in Fallujah ... has turned the muddled center of Iraqi public opinion - where people were ambivalent about the occupation but not actively opposed - decisively against the US-led Coalition Provisional Authority and its local allies."

A "typical example of the hopeful Iraqis the US is losing amid the violence of April" is Haider Adil Al-Khafaji, reports the Monitor.

He was one of millions who poured into the streets when Saddam fell last April, and recalls jumping for joy when he caught the first sight of US armor rolling into Baghdad. "I swear to Allah I was happy that they got rid of this man. I was thinking they'd develop Iraq, make it a better country." But he recalls that his growing uneasiness with the US occupation turned into something steelier a few weeks ago, when he saw the first images of civilian casualties carried from Fallujah on the Arab satellite channels Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya. "They showed us what they really are."

The violence in Fallujah has led some Shiites to set aside traditional enmity and go there to aid Sunni insurgents in their battle against the US military. "The US siege of Fallujah has awakened newly militant nationalism among Shiites now eager to fight the American occupation, based on Muslim religious identity and feelings of Arab unity," says another Monitor report about rising frustration in "once-friendly" Shiite Baghdad neighborhoods. The article asserts that the Shiite slum of Hurriya in Baghdad, where some residents have turned against the US forces, "is a microcosm of what may happen around Iraq if the situation in Fallujah continues."

An editorial in the Guardian draws parallels between the fighting in Fallujah and the "bloodletting in Jenin almost exactly two years ago, when Israeli forces destroyed a Palestinian refugee camp in the middle of the town." The Guardian says "the heavy-handed tactics being used bear [in Fallujah] little resemblance to peace-keeping, and far more to those of an occupying army seeking to crush all resistance."

The Guardian isn't the only news source drawing parallels between the US in Iraq and the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. The Washington Post reports that US President George W. Bush's backing Wednesday of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to withdraw unilaterally from Gaza and most of the West Bank may have ripple effects in Iraq.

There is a possibility that the action by Bush could further aggravate the situation in Iraq, just as Israel's killing of a prominent Palestinian militant set off rioting in Iraq several weeks ago. Independent pollster John Zogby, who has surveyed extensively in the Arab world, said: "This is pretty much the final nail in the coffin of the peace process as far as Arabs are concerned." He said his polling indicates the Palestinian cause is among the top three issues for 90 percent of Arabs in all Arab countries he has surveyed. "It's not even a political issue, it's a bloodstream issue," Zogby said.

Also...
• Sept. 11 panel cites C.I.A. for failures in terror case ( The New York Times)
• Deaths of scores of mercenaries hidden from view ( The Star South Africa)
• Documenting Al Jazeera ( Slate)
• Purported audio tape of bin Laden offers deal to European countries ( Slate)
• 'Bin Laden' offers Europe truce ( BBC)
• Sharon coup: US go-ahead ( The New York Times)
• Old weapons, new terror worries ( The Christian Science Monitor)

• Feedback appreciated. E-mail Matthew Clark.