Iraqi political blocs have held talks with Iran over a standoff sparked by a warrant for the arrest of the country’s Sunni Arab vice president that has stoked sectarian tensions, officials said on Tuesday. Charges that Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi ran a death squad have plunged Iraq into political crisis, and representatives of multiple parties have spoken to top officials in Tehran, according to senior political sources in Baghdad and the autonomous Kurdish region, where Hashemi is holed up. The United States, which completed a troop pullout a week ago, has long charged that Iran plays a nefarious role in Iraq by funding and supporting militias, and interfering in Iraqi politics, charges Tehran rejects.
“Iraqi parties are contacting Iran to mediate over the Hashemi issue,” an official close to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Three Kurdish political sources belonging to parties including the ruling Kurdistania alliance, meanwhile, said a senior Iranian delegation met with Kurdish regional president Massud Barzani and Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, in recent days to discuss the Hashemi arrest warrant. The delegation, which includes senior officials from the Iranian intelligence service and army, was headed by Sardar Majidi, the deputy chief of the Quds Force of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards, according to the sources, who did not want to be named. They said the delegation pushed for a meeting of senior political leaders, but Maliki refused to attend any meeting held in Arbil, and Barzani declined to join talks in Baghdad. Two independent Kurdish newspapers, Awene and Baas, have also reported that a top Iranian delegation visited Iraq and made the request.
