‘Big Country…Big Problems’

Do you travel around the city freely?
Completely free? No. We don't have any particular problems like [the British] where we have to travel with a column of armored vehicles. But we can't stroll down the street either.

The ceasefire that ended the recent fighting in Basra was reportedly hammered out in Iran between Iraqi politicians, Sadr representatives and General Qassem Soleimani, the commander of the Revolutionary Guards Quds Force. Were you involved from this end?
We didn't have any special communication because the discussions were outside of Basra. The [Iranian] embassy was following up. It was the [Iraqi] government on one side, who was having discussions in Baghdad. And another side was the Sadrists who were having talks outside of Basra anyway.

What's the situation at the nearby border between Iraq and Iran?
We have a lot of border protocols between the two countries. There was a group from the foreign ministry that came to discuss this but none of the ideas have become operational yet. For example, to establish direct communication between border guards. There is some communication now but it's not as much as it should be. The problem is that it's a vast border. There are problems at the marine borders with fishermen and smugglers. With the land borders it's the same. There are smugglers. There are tribes. There are a lot of problems on both sides that need to be monitored continuously.

What's being smuggled between the two countries?
There is some commercial smuggling - for example, video goods are cheaper in Iraq so they get smuggled to Iran. At the same time, there are some things cheaper in Iran which get smuggled to Iraq. When fuel was cheaper in Iran, before the recent rationing, it would constantly get smuggled to Iraq. Benzene, white oil, gas oil- we still have gas oil being smuggled from Iran to Iraq. There's also drug smuggling. After the occupiers came to Iraq then drugs became widespread. At the time of Saddam it was dealt with harshly and the possession of even a gram was not tolerated. There was no smuggling route through Iraq. But slowly Iraq is being transformed into a drug route toward Europe. So this problem can be added to the problems of Iraq after the fall of the regime. There's also the smuggling of weapons. And that again has to do with the situation in Iraq. All the weapons and equipment of the Iraqi army were looted at the hands of the people because of the lack of planning during [former U.S. administrator Paul] Bremer's time. It wasn't a small amount.

U.S. military officials have repeatedly accused you of arming militant groups in Basra.
The Americans want to hang their problems around the necks of others. This is the truth. They talk a lot but they haven't been able to show documentation. And the reason is the Americans still haven't been able to answer the question of where the equipment of the former Iraqi Army has gone. If they can answer this question, then they can say that weapons are being smuggled from Iran or elsewhere. Where is the equipment of the former military? What happened? The Iraqi army was the fifth largest in the world. It was a very formidable military. They fought us for eight years and invaded Kuwait and also dealt with various internal conflicts. These weapons are all now in the hands of the groups that are attacking the Americans or setting off explosions among Iraqi civilians. [The Americans] don't want to accept that a big country like this also has big problems.

U.S. officials have also accused Iran of sheltering militants who escaped the recent fighting in Basra.
The two countries have had relations for a long time. In the summer of last year, we had 1,200 people applying for visas every day. Mostly for religious pilgrimages or seeing families- because there are visits between families on both sides. In Dowlatabad, in southern Tehran, the whole population is Iraqi. Their relatives are here. What are we supposed to do about it?  These are historical ties, not just something that came up in the past three, four, ten years. Saddam couldn't wipe out these ties, much less the Americans. These ties aren't something the Americans can understand.

[The Americans] attack us and say groups have crossed the border to get training and so on. There's nothing of the sort. [The Americans] don't want to accept that people here oppose them. Some people resist them politically, others, like Seyed Moqtada [Sadr], resist them in an armed fashion. This resistance exists among the Sunnis, the Shias and even the Kurds. The Americans have to accept this. And they can't. 

What sort of commercial ties are there between Iran and Iraq in the south?
[We export] mostly foodstuffs - dairy, vegetables, fruit. There are also industrial goods. There is also the transfer of electricity from Khuzestan to Basra. But because of the problems with the Iraqi electrical grid it's not operating at full capacity.