U.S. watchful of Iranian efforts to exert influence

WASHINGTON -- Military and intelligence officials say they are watching for signs that Iran might be promoting anti-American demonstrations or other challenges to U.S. authority in an effort to exert influence in a new Iraq.

At this point, the chief interest of the Iranians appears to be in gathering information and making contacts inside a neighboring country that has been largely closed to them for years, according to a U.S. intelligence official who spoke Wednesday on the condition of anonymity.

"Right now, the Shiite and any Iranian-influenced Shiite actions are not an overt threat to coalition forces," said Lt. Gen. David McKiernan, U.S. commander of land forces in Iraq.

"But we're watching all these competing interests," McKiernan said. "And if truth be known, this is probably a little bit of democracy in progress right now in Iraq."

Iran has many supporters in southern Iraq, particularly Shiite Muslims who see themselves philosophically aligned with the Shiite government in Tehran, the intelligence official said. This includes several Iraqi clerics that the Iranians appear to be promoting.

While some Iranians have crossed into southern Iraq, most of the Iranian agents are themselves Iraqis, the official said.

There's no conclusive evidence linking the Iranian government to anti-U.S. demonstrations, but officials say they are watching closely for such activity.

'We have concerns'

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said the administration has warned Iran not to interfere in Iraq.

"We have concerns about Iranian agents in Iraq," he said. "We have made clear to Iran we oppose any outside interference in Iraq's road to democracy."

The Iranians are also investigating the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq, a group backed by Saddam Hussein's government that opposes the theocratic government of Iran, the intelligence official said.

The group has conducted armed incursions into Iran and claims thousands of Iranian fighters have crossed into Iraq to attack them.

While the Bush administration has criticized the Iranian government as supporters of terrorism, it also bombed the Mujahedeen camps in Iraq during the war. The group, labeled a terrorist organization by the State Department, says it did not fight the U.S.-led invasion and appears to have capitulated.

To a lesser extent, all of Iraq's neighbors are taking steps similar to Iran's, seeking influence and information to better position themselves whatever state emerges, the intelligence official said. To these countries, a friendly Iraqi government means access to markets and a safe border with a former aggressor.

Iraq, under Saddam, fought a war with Iran through most of the 1980s.

In 2002, Iran also took steps in Afghanistan -- on its opposite border -- after the Taliban fell. It built roads, donated buses and granted scholarships to Afghans to attend Iranian universities.

A key figure in Iraq with ties to Iran is the Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim, who leads the largest exile group that opposed Saddam. He may return to Iraq soon.

The Tehran-based Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq opposes a U.S. administration in Iraq, but it has close ties with the rest of the U.S.-backed opposition, including the Kurds and the London-based Iraqi National Congress.

The ayatollah's brother, Abdel Aziz al-Hakim, who commands the group's armed wing, has returned to Iraq and has been seen with crowds of supporters in several southern cities.

He told al-Jazeera television on Wednesday that the group opposes any foreign presence in Iraq. Its fighters -- the Badr Brigades -- are present around Iraq but have been ordered not to confront U.S. forces, he said.

The group boycotted a U.S.-led meeting near Nasiriyah last week that was meant to pave the way for a new administration.