I was watching Wolf Blitzer yesterday (don't ask why, I usually don't) and was dismayed at this particular segment of his show when he began discussing Maliki's visit to Iran.
First there was this comment by Malveaux:
More now on our top story, Iran rolling out the red carpet for the prime minister of Iraq. The leaders of those two countries met in Tehran today. Our White House correspondent Suzanne Malveaux is standing by. What are they saying at the White House about this meeting? Because a lot of people are seeing this picture of the Iraqi leader meeting with the Iranian leader and they're saying is this why the U.S. went to war?
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well Wolf, you know, senior administration officials simply say they do not believe that this is a dangerous alliance. They believe it's a natural relationship between these two neighbors. They say it is really going to be determined by the sovereign government of Iraq, according to one senior administration official. He says, look, the United States does not have diplomatic relations with Iran, Iraq does.
Now as you know, it is a very delicate balancing act here. On the one hand, this administration taking very aggressive moves to try to change Iran's behavior to isolate Ahmadinejad for the international community, to abandon his nuclear ambitions. Also to get him to stop what they say allowing insurgents to cross the border, to arm Hezbollah, many different things that the administration does not approve. But on the other hand, they are very mindful in this situation, in this case, they do not want to appear as if they're interfering with a sovereign nation, Iraq's diplomacy with its neighbor.
BLITZER: They're both Shia, the Iraqi and the Iranian leader. In fact, the Iraqi prime minister spent years living in Tehran while he was in exile. He also lived in Damascus. But the problem is a lot of Iraqi Sunnis look at that and they get very, very worried that a Shiite alliance is being forged. And that the Iraqi Sunnis, about 20 percent of the country, they're going to pay a huge price for that.
MALVEAUX: Well, absolutely. There is definitely a perception problem here and this is something that the administration is very much aware of it. As you mentioned before, al-Maliki close ties with Iran, being in exile in that country for a number of years, has also been reaching out, trying to establish economic ties with Iran. As you know, the Shiite-led government and the majority Shiite in Iran perhaps forming that type of alliance.
Tony Snow earlier today was asked about this particular alliance in this meeting. And here's how he responded.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TONY SNOW, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: We're still concerned about Iran's trying to support sectarian elements. But also we understand that Prime Minister Maliki has -- is doing what he needs to do as head of state, visiting a neighbor that is -- has some power and certainly some influence, there being a lot of Shia Muslims, including Prime Minister Maliki. And we will do everything we can, not only to support the prime minister, but also to see to the Iranians play a constructive role.
QUESTION: This administration clearly still believes Iran is interfering in Iraq.
SNOW: We want to make sure they don't.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MALVEAUX: And of course whether or not this is a good or bad thing, the White House refuses to characterize it either way. They simply say today that there is no concern that Iraqis will subjugate themselves to Iranian regime and they will simply leave it at that, Wolf.
Then Blitzer moved on to Cafferty and this is what he had to say:
BLITZER: Suzanne Malveaux, thanks very much. I want to bring jack Cafferty back into THE SITUATION ROOM. Jack, what do you make of this development? The Iraqi leader going to Iran meeting with the Iranian president. It was only a few weeks ago that the U.S. ambassador in Baghdad Zalmay Khalilzad said the Iranians were fomenting this insurgency, at least in large measure against the Iraqi government and the U.S. forces.
CAFFERTY: Well, I don't know if that's true or not and they may well have a hand in fomenting the insurgency against the American military forces. My first thought is I bet there are days that Tony Snow wishes he'd never taken the job because this has to be a nightmare, to my way of thinking, for the administration.
For 11 years Iraq and Iran engaged in a bloody war when Saddam Hussein was running Iraq. The war was between the Sunnis in Iraq and the Shia in Iran. Well we went in there and overthrew the Saddam government and the Sunnis are no longer in power. The majority in Iran are Shia, just like the Shia in -- the majority in Iraq are Shia, just like the majority in Iran.
And in that part of the world, the religion is what matters. It's not about politics. It's about religion. And there's a religious brotherhood that transcends the geographical boundaries there. And Ahmadinejad is playing us like a cheap fiddle. He is bound and determined to make himself a player on the world stage and this was a pretty handy move he pulled off today, meeting with al- Maliki.
He's offering to come in there and secure the country. Obviously, that's something that we haven't been able to do as yet. Now, he may wind up being able to do it the way Saddam Hussein did it at the point of a gun and a fist. But the irony would be that the Sunnis, who subjected the Shia and Kurds to the humiliation and violence and mistreatment, would be on the receiving end of Ahmadinejad restoring order to Iraq.
I can't imagine -- this has got to be the kind of thing that makes President Bush wake up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat. I mean, this is a nightmare scenario. On the other hand, what about an opportunity, as one e-mailer wrote to us earlier, for the United States to say, you know, what? Go ahead and secure the country, we're out of here. We're going to keep an eye on things, you're not going to be allowed to develop nuclear weapons. You're not going to be allowed to torment your neighbors. But if you want to go in there and settle things down, God bless you. We're going to bring our troops home, but don't get out of line, or we'll be back.
BLITZER: A lot of U.S. friends in the Arab world, mostly, the Sunnis, they look at this picture, see this emerging Shiite alliance, they get very nervous as well. Jack, thanks very much. He'll be back with "The Cafferty File" this hour.
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0609/12/sitroom.03.html
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