Iraqi foreign minister: Iran doesn't own us

Iraq is grateful for Iran's help in fighting the Islamic State, but rejects any interference by Tehran in its affairs, Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari said Friday.

In an appearance at the Council on Foreign Relations, Jaafari, a Shiite Muslim former prime minister, spent most of his time fending off U.S. concerns about Iran's growing involvement in his country over the year-long war against the Islamic State, which has seized control of about a third of Iraq's territory.

Fox News reported Friday that Iran, along with Russia and Syria, have set up a military coordination cell in Baghdad to assist in the fight.

"Iraq is not part of Iran. Iraq is not an Iranian province," Jaafari said. "Iran has no right to make decisions on behalf of Iraq. We accept help, but we do not accept interference or violations of our sovereignty."

Concerns about Iranian influence in Iraq, particularly in the form of support for Shiite militias accused of sectarian war crimes, have weighed heavily on U.S. officials. Experts have warned that Sunni Arabs, whose help is seen as key to defeating the Islamic State, are discouraged by any sign of a tilt toward Iran in either Washington or Baghdad.

Sectarian discrimination against Sunnis by the Shiite-led government of former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is widely seen as one of the driving factors behind the extremist group's rapid rise to control in Sunni-dominated areas of Iraq, including Mosul, its second-largest city. As part of its effort to combat the group, the United States helped engineer Maliki's ouster in favor of a more inclusive government led by Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi.

Jaafari, a former colleague of Maliki's in the Shiite Da'wa party, was ousted as prime minister in his favor in 2006 amid an earlier round of sectarian tensions and later formed his own political group.

He said though Iraq sees its relationship with the United States as stable and long-term, it would also continue to have friendly relations with Tehran for historical, cultural and geographic reasons, noting that the two countries share a border of nearly 1,000 miles.

"Iraq is proud of its heritage as an Arab nation, but geography has its duties," he said.

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