findin it a little hard to concentrate with all the noise

The first visit of an Iranian leader to Baghdad since the Iranian Revolution, and the first full-scale state reception by post-Saddam Iraq, went down mostly as expected.  Ahmedenejad met with a wide swathe of Iraqi leaders, demonstrating the depth and breadth of friendly Iranian ties to the dominant Shia and Kurdish factions in the Iraqi government.  He made a point of rejecting American claims about Iranian interference in Iraq, talking up his interest in Iraqi stability.  He also got in a few digs at the American presence.  For instance, during a joint press conference with Maliki said that "Iraqis do not love America", and even more pointedly, given his own warm welcome, he said that "Iraqis do not welcome Americans in their country".  He signed seven economic protocols, talked up the prospects for security cooperation, and generally appeared quite at ease. 

Sunnis protested bitterly (as reportedly did some Shia tribes as well), with protestors denouncing the visit and shouting anti-Iranian slogans which carried a rather pointed anti-government undertone.  That could be taken as good news, for those most concerned with building an anti-Iranian front, or as bad news by those who see anti-Iranian protest as a proxy for anti-government protest.  While most of the mainstream media (Arab and Western alike) ran pictures of his meetings with Talabani or Maliki, pictures like this one with ISCI leader-in-waiting Ammar Abd al-Aziz al-Hakim are already circulating widely:

Source: alforatv.net 

It was an unusually violent day in Baghdad despite heavy security measures, if not in the areas where Ahmedenejad was.  That raises an interesting question: I don't think it would possible for him to have not encountered American military forces during his visit, but I've seen no public reports of such encounters - nor any public reports that he or his team met with Ryan Crocker or other American officials during the visit. 

The Arab media coverage mostly played it straight, with pictures of Ahmedenejad with Maliki or Talebani featured on most front pages (both al-Jazeera and al-Arabiya went with the "new page in Iraqi-Iranian relations" header).  I could sense a real tension running through the headlines and stories in much of the Arab media:  on the one hand, some pleasure in Ahmedenejad's tweaking of America's nose;  on the other, the underlying fear of and antipathy towards Iran and/or the Shia.  Hence, headlines such as al-Hayat's "first visit by an Iranian leader since the Safavids":  building up the significance of his visit and the challenge it poses to the US, while at the same time playing to the ways in which "Safavid" has become an anti-Shia epithet among Iraqi Sunnis.  Overall, though, the relatively tame coverage of the visit fits in with the overarching trend I've been writing about for a few months of the GCC states seeking some kind of working relationship with Iran, even in problem spots like Iraq. 

But finally (and though I'm loath to spell it out, the point of the post's title) it's worth noting that the overall impact of Ahmedenejad's visit on Arab public opinion has been profoundly muted by the overwhelming focus on Israel's assault on Gaza.  In a different news cycle, the visit would have dominated the headlines.  But this week, the bloodshed in Gaza dominates the Arab news, talk shows, op-eds, even the forums.  I don't think that losing his media moment bothers Ahmedenejad all that much, though, since the furious Arab reaction to the images from Gaza only bolsters Iran's wider strategic agenda in the region and further weakens the American position.      

Comments

[Anon]

This is not Ammar Al-Hakim, this Abdul-Al-Aziz the father

[aardvark]

of course it is - sorry about that.

[ash-shakkak]

Thanks for doing the work to put together this very useful review, Abu A. Cheers!

[bb]

Yes, very good review. Took me back 27 years to Sept 1980 when Iraq invaded Iran with the intention of annexing the southern Iranian oilfields along with the Iranian Shia Arab population. Will never forget my disgust when the United States failed to condemn the invasion and did not insist on a UNSC resolution demanding Iraq withdraw.

The ensuing 8 year war was one of the most awful on record: Iran desperately recruiting child soldiers to kill themselves on the Iraqi laid minefields, and Iraq using chemical weapons and mustard gas on the Iranians and its own Kurdish people. Iraq all the while being heavily armed by the French and the Russians while the US cynically prolonged the conflict for as long as possible. The ultimate Kissinger "realism".

Nine months after the conflict started, Israel bombed out Iraq's French built nuclear reactor which Saddam was going to use to develop nuclear weapons. This was the not only time that Israel helped Iran out, as those who remember Contragate would know and I'm sure there have been many unpublicised dealings between Israel and Iran while the Baath were still in power.

Now we fast forward to 2008 and Saddam and his cronies have been executed for their war crimes, the Baath Party has been abolished, and Iraq has a democratic constitution and a representative democracy elected on proportional representation - all courtesy of the United States. And an Iranian president has made the first ever visit to Iraq to be welcomed by a Kurdish President.

Truly a momentous day for Iraq, Iran and the US. In some not-so-small way the US has paid reparation for the blood left on its hands after its cynical machinations between 1980-88.

[Nur al-Cubicle]

Saw this item too, in L'Orient-Le Jour (Lebanon)

"Dans la nuit de dimanche à lundi, le président iranien est, par ailleurs, allé prier dans le quartier de Kazimiya à Bagdad, au mausolée de l’imam chiite très vénéré, Kazem. Prière durant laquelle le président iranien, connu pour sa piété, n’a pu retenir ses larmes."

Late Sunday night the Iranian President went to pray at the mausoleum of the highly venerated Imam Kazem in Baghdad's Kazimiya quarter. During the visit, the pious head of state was unable to hide his tears.

[Mark Pyruz]

BB: good comment. I would just add that eight months before the Israeli Air Force hit Iraq’s nuclear reactor, in 1980 the Iranian Air Force pounded that very same target.