VISITING CHALDEAN ARCHBISHOP OF TEHRAN ON

C O N F I D E N T I A L PARIS 000487

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/20/2015
TAGS: PREL PHUM IR IZ FR
SUBJECT: VISITING CHALDEAN ARCHBISHOP OF TEHRAN ON
SITUATION OF CHRISTIANS IN IRAN, IRAQ


Classified By: Political Minister-Counselor Josiah Rosenblatt, reasons
1.4 (b) and (d).


1. (C) Visiting Chaldean Archbishop of Tehran Ramzi Garmou
(protect) offered impressions of the difficult situation of
Christians in Iran and Iraq during a meeting with poloff
January 14. (Note: Garmou had contacted poloff to seek
Embassy assistance in applying for a NIV to attend the
National Prayer Breakfast in Washington in early February;
his visa was issued January 18.He is an Iraqi passport
holder, born in Zakho, Iraq, and has served as Archbishop in
the Roman Catholic (Chaldean) Archdiocese of Tehran since

1999. End note.) Garmou described the situation of
Christians in Iran as difficult, with the Iranian government
allowing Christians to practice their religion behind closed
doors only. Garmou noted that while the Iranian government,
unlike Saudi Arabia, allowed churches to operate, local
church activities were heavily monitored and infiltrated by
the security services. He added that he had to seek
government permission and interviews with security service
officials each time he sought to travel overseas. During one
trip to Europe, he noted, he received a surprise call from
the local Iranian ambassador there, as if to let him know
that his movements were being watched.


2. (C) Garmou described the number of Chaldean Christians in
Iran as ranging from 10,000 to 12,000, with emigration taking
a heavy toll on Iran's Christian population since 1979. He
described the Chaldean population in Iran as somewhat
dispersed, with concentrations in Tehran and western Iran;
the socio-economic level of Chaldeans was generally modest,
with many involved in agriculture or other non-professional
occupations due to barriers to social advancement and
government jobs for Christians. He observed that Iran's
largest Christian population remained Armenian Orthodox
Christians, whom he estimated to number about 65,000.


3. (C) Garmou was downbeat on the current situation of
Christians in Iraq, and continually referred to Operation
Iraqi Freedom as the U.S. "invasion" of Iraq. He described
widespread emigration of Christians from Iraq due to security
threats, and estimated that some 400,000 Iraqi Christians had
fled northern Iraq for Syria. Garmou and his colleague, a
Paris-based Iraqi Chaldean Christian businessman named Elish
Zako, blamed "Saudi Wahhabists" for fomenting anti-Christian
sentiment among Iraqis, and asserted that such influence
began quietly in the 1990's as Saddam sought to boost his
Islamic credentials after the first Gulf War. Zako, who said
his sister-in-law had died in a Baghdad church bombing last
August, described imams in Mosul as preaching anti-Christian
incitement; one such imam, he claimed, delivered a sermon
advising Muslims not to buy property from Christians
emigrating from Iraq, because "they soon would be able to
take it for free."


4. (C) Both Garmou and Zako expressed concern over the
prospect of a Shi'ite theocracy taking hold after January 30
elections, with Garmou commenting that the U.S had seen how
badly Christians fared under the Iranian theocratic regime.
Despite general pessimism on the situation of Christians in
Iraq, they reaffirmed their view that Iraqi Christians would
participate in high numbers in January 30 elections. Garmou
noted that his brother was competing on PM Allawi's electoral
list, and described Allawi as one of the few national
politicians whom Christians could trust. Zako dismissed
Shi'a leaders, including Abdul Aziz al-Hakim of SCIRI and
Ayatollah SISTANI, as masking disdain for Christians under
the Shi'a practice of "takiya," or dissimulating one's true
views. Reminded by poloff that registration for
Out-of-Country voting for Iraqis residents in France was
underway, Garmou said he would remind attendees at mass
services in France of the need to participate in elections in
large numbers. He added that while the ideal would be for
Iraqis to vote for candidates regardless of ethnic or
religious affiliation, in the current unstable environment it
was important for Iraqi Christians to support Christian
candidates, to maintain a say in the political process.
Chaldean church leaders in Iraq had already called on Iraqi
Christians to vote on religious lines, for this very reason.


5. (U) Minimize considered.


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