PRT SALAH AD DIN: IRANIAN VICE PRESIDENT VISITS

C O N F I D E N T I A L BAGHDAD 003456 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/31/2018 TAGS: PREL PGOV PINR IR IZ SUBJECT: PRT SALAH AD DIN: IRANIAN VICE PRESIDENT VISITS SAMARRA WITHOUT PROVINCE'S KNOWLEDGE REF: BAGHDAD 3418 Classified By: PRT Leader Rick Bell for reasons 1.4 (b,d) ¶1. (U) This is a PRT Salah ad Din cable. ¶2. (C) Summary: Iranian Vice President Mohammad Javad Ali Akbari visited the Golden Mosque in Samarra October 24, accompanied by the Iraqi Minister of Youth and Sports. This is the second visit by a high-ranking Iranian official this month; local officials had no advance knowledge in either case. End Summary. ¶3. (C) On October 24, Iranian Vice President and Head of Youth Mohammad Javad Ali Akbari visited the Golden Mosque in Samarra, accompanied by the Iraqi Minister of Youth and Sports, Jasim al-Jaafar. This is the second visit by a high-ranking Iranian official in October: The Iranian Ambassador to Iraq visited on October 1 (reftel). In both cases, local authorities had no advance knowledge. ¶4. (C) The Governor of Salah ad Din Province, the Qaimmaqam ("mayor") of Samarra and the Iraqi Minister of Electricity were visiting the new Jalassia power station under construction south of Samarra when the Qaimmaqam received word from the Samarra Operations Center that President Talibani's motorcade had arrived in town. On arrival back in Samarra, the Qaimmaqam determined that the visitors were the Iranian VP and the Iraqi Minister of Youth and Sports, who were traveling with President Talibani's security detail. The Governor and Qaimmaqam proceeded to the Golden Mosque and met briefly with the visiting party. The VP's party was in Samarra for approximately three hours. (NOTE: The Golden Mosque is a major Shia shrine; according to Shia belief, the twelfth and final Imam, who will return as the Mahdi, went into occultation from that spot. The population of Samarra is overwhelmingly Sunni Arab, as is the population of Salah ad Din province as a whole. END NOTE.) ¶5. (C) The Governor (Sunni Arab) invited the Iranian VP to invest in the province, and in return the VP invited him and the Qaimmaqam to visit Iran. The Governor declined the invitation on the basis that the Provincial Council (PC) elections are coming up and the timing would be awkward. He offered to send the Deputy Governor (who is also running for PC on a rival list and would likely decline for the same reason). The Qaimmaqam declined period, and later commented to the Samarra PRT representative that he would "never consider going to Iran." (U) COMMENT -------------- ¶6. (C) It is plausible that the failure to give local officials advance notice of these two recent Iranian visits was simply a security precaution. Even so, the Golden Mosque is ostensibly under the Sunni Waqf, and access to it is supposed to be controlled by the commander of the Samarra Operations Center, according to a written instruction from the Prime Minister. These two surprise visits feed the fear (already widespread among locals) that the Iraqi Government is colluding with Iran to place Samarra under radical Shia control. CROCKER