By SAM DAGHER
KARBALA, Iraq — Over just two days, about 80 Iranian pilgrims were killed in April in suicide bombings in Iraq. But even though the pilgrims are clearly a favored target for Sunni extremists in Iraq, and though the threat continues, it seems nothing will keep the Iranians from coming here.
On a recent afternoon, a group of pilgrims from the Iranian city of Isfahan — many in tears and in a trancelike state — inched toward the shimmering golden-domed shrine ahead chanting “Hussein beloved” in Persian. Inside, Iranians jostled other pilgrims to grip the ornate gold and silver cagelike structure bearing the tomb of Prophet Muhammad’s grandson Imam Hussein, shrouded in green fabric embroidered with precious stones.
It is religious devotion that compels them to come. But Iran’s government is part of the equation, too, encouraging a greater Iranian presence in Iraq by supporting companies that control a lucrative segment of the pilgrimage business and renovating and maintaining Shiite shrines in Iraq.
While the United States and surrounding Arab nations worry about direct Iranian influence and support for armed groups, the pilgrimages present a small but important example of Iran’s rising soft power in Iraq. And it is something that makes Iraqis increasingly resentful.
Recently, the Interior Ministry banned Persian signs inside Karbala despite the fact most Iranian pilgrims speak no Arabic.
In April, Karbala’s residents demonstrated against the awarding of a contract to an Iranian company, Al Kawthar, to renovate the historic city center, including the area around the shrines of Imam Hussein and his brother Abu Fadhil al-Abbas, part of a $100-million project. Officials say they have been inundated with petitions against the Iranian proposal.
“We are Arabs, we will not accept to be colonized by anyone,” said Ali al-Hayawi, a hotel owner in Karbala catering to pilgrims, who is opposed to Iran’s involvement in the project. “We do not take orders from the Iranians.”
The dynamic in Karbala suggests that Iran may have a hard time exerting any deep sway among Iraqis, even among fellow Shiites, with suspicion playing out on several fronts. But at the national level, the relationship is more of a tug of war. The Iraqi government may want to keep Iran at arm’s length, but it also needs Iran economically and as a strategic ally.
Iran and Iraq have always had a contentious relationship, and it became more complicated with the American presence in Iraq.
The two predominantly Shiite countries share an 800-mile border and historical, cultural and trade ties, but attitudes on both sides remain colored both by ancient enmities and an eight-year war in the 1980s that left hundreds of thousands dead or maimed. Saddam Hussein did allow Iranian pilgrims back into Iraq in the mid-1990s, but it was a fraction of the current number and they were under the constant watch of his secret police.
Iraq signed an agreement with Iran in 2005 to allow up to 5,000 Iranian pilgrims in each day. Most come by land and stay for a week. There are also three daily flights now ferrying Iranian pilgrims to Iraq. Tehran wants to send many more and to improve the infrastructure in the shrine cities to allow it.
Karbala, for instance, receives millions of visitors each year but has a maximum hotel capacity of 23,000, local officials say.
Nationalists and Sunni extremists aside, many Iraqis welcome Iranian pilgrims, whose business is vital for the economies of this shrine city, nearby Najaf and the area around the Shiite shrine in the Kadhimiya district of Baghdad. And the government deploys its security forces liberally to protect them.
At the same time many Iraqis bristle at Iran’s perceived negative influence and meddling in internal politics, especially through the governing Iraqi Shiite parties that have been nurtured by Iran for years.
“Three-quarters of the power is in their hands,” said Haidar Abdul-Hassan, a shopkeeper in Karbala, referring to Iranians and their Iraqi allies.
Iraqi officials, eager not to be seen as beholden to Iran, become cagey and agitated when asked about Iranian influence in Karbala, insisting that it is minimal.
A closer look, though, reveals a different picture.
Behind the Imam Hussein shrine, through a dimly lighted hotel lobby and up a flight of stairs are the offices of Shamsa, a private Iranian company that has a virtual monopoly on Iranian pilgrimages to Iraq.
Shamsa gets to choose which Iraqi companies to deal with for the transportation, protection and accommodation of pilgrims. Almost all its partners are companies affiliated with Iraqi political parties close to Iran, according to those in the business. An example is the Ihsan private security company, which is close to the influential Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq.
Tucked inside a warren of alleys in Karbala’s bazaar are the nondescript offices of Setad Bazsazi Atabat Aliyat. It is a company owned by the Iranian government, involved in shrine renovation worldwide and busy at work here.
An entry on a whiteboard reads: “Deliver five air-cooling units to Imam Hussein’s shrine.”
Glossy graphic designs of the contentious Karbala shrine renovation project hang on the walls. The project entails demolishing old homes, enlarging the plaza between the shrines and constructing two underground levels and shopping malls. Al Kawthar, the Iranian company awarded the design contract, is a Setad affiliate.
Both operate in all shrine cities. Projects in Karbala alone include a hospital, several large hotels and apartment complexes and an Iranian-run religious seminary.
In May 2008, Setad’s chairman told Iranian news media that Iran donated nearly $1 billion to equip and renovate Iraq’s shrines. Shrine officials in Karbala at the time said the number was “highly exaggerated.”
The United States military commander for the nine mainly Shiite provinces south of Baghdad, including Karbala, said recently that while Iran reduced but did not completely cut off its “lethal support” and arming of militias in Iraq, it had sought to increase its soft power through charities and economic and political organizations.
“Some of it is good,” said the commander, Maj. Gen. Michael Oates. “My concern is the degree to which they may seek to influence Iraqi politics.”
Nazila Fathi contributed reporting from Tehran.