SULAY GOVERNOR: IRAN'S INFLUENCE INCREASING

C O N F I D E N T I A L KIRKUK 000066

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

BAGHDAD FOR POL, NCT

E.O. 12958: DECL: 3/19/2016
TAGS: PGOV KCOR KISL PINS IZ IR
SUBJECT: SULAY GOVERNOR: IRAN'S INFLUENCE INCREASING

CLASSIFIED BY: DEAN, Acting Regional Coordinator, REO Kirkuk, US
Department of State.
REASON: 1.4 (b),(d)




1. (C) Sulaymaniyah Provincial Governor Dana Ahmed Majid
complained on 13 March to RC(A) and IPAO about Iran's growing
influence on Iraq's energy, oil refineries, and imports and
exports. Majid said Iran was heavily invested in a new railway
route from Basrah to China, which would cross Iranian territory.
Further, the Iraqi national government recently approved an
agreement allowing Iran to refine oil from Basrah. Finally,
Iran provided electricity to Iraq. Majid concluded that Iran's
control over Iraq's energy, oil refineries, and import and
exports challenged Iraq's sovereignty.


2. (C) Majid said that, because Kurds were Sunnis and Iran had
problems with its own Kurds, Iran was not influential in the
Kurdish region. However, he warned that corruption in Iraq and
the KRG increased the power of the Islamic parties. Majid gave
the example of Iranian President Ahmadinejad who was elected on
an anti-corruption platform despite his lack of political or
religious credentials. Majid warned that events on the borders
directly affected Kurdistan: "We are the neighbors of Iran -
only 400 meters stand between us." He said Islamic parties in
Kurdistan received budgets from neighboring countries.


3. (C) Majid said that during the two years he served as Chief
of the Security Forces (Asayish) in the region, he was accused
of violating the rights of the Islamic parties by prohibiting
them from meeting to give religious instruction to children.
Majid said, "I broke the law in the interest of the region. It
was the right thing to do, to keep the children and young people
out of their houses, learning their ideology." Majid said
preventing children from learning the Islamic ideology was
especially important considering the administrative, financial,
and political corruption in the Kurdish Region.


4. (C) Majid recounted that he had been a Marxist as a young
man in the Peshmerga, but that even then he had prayed when in
danger: when conditions were bad, people would turn to religion.
He requested U.S. assistance in creating a plan to control the
spread of political Islam in Iraq and the Kurdish region. He
said the KRG needed help fighting corruption and taking a census
of the economic issues in the Kurdish region.


5. (C) COMMENT: Concern about fundamentalism is a consistent
theme from the PUK and officials recognize official corruption
is helping their Islamic political opponents. We have yet to
see, though, whether Kurdish leaders seriously intend to tackle
the endemic corruption that is causing it. Majid offered no
proof for his contentions regarding Iran and he may have been
deliberately overstating to make a point. His confession about
violating freedom of association to protect democracy may be a
prediction as much as a reminiscence.

DEAN