US embassy cable - 05PARIS487

C O N F I D E N T I A L PARIS 000487 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/20/2015 
TAGS: PREL, PHUM, IR, IZ, FR 
SUBJECT: VISITING CHALDEAN ARCHBISHOP OF TEHRAN ON 
SITUATION OF CHRISTIANS IN IRAN, IRAQ 
 
 
Classified By: Political Minister-Counselor Josiah Rosenblatt, reasons 
1.4 (b) and (d). 
 
1. (C) Visiting Chaldean Archbishop of Tehran Ramzi Garmou 
(protect) offered impressions of the difficult situation of 
Christians in Iran and Iraq during a meeting with poloff 
January 14.  (Note: Garmou had contacted poloff to seek 
Embassy assistance in applying for a NIV to attend the 
National Prayer Breakfast in Washington in early February; 
his visa was issued January 18.He is an Iraqi passport 
holder, born in Zakho, Iraq, and has served as Archbishop in 
the Roman Catholic (Chaldean) Archdiocese of Tehran since 
1999.  End note.)  Garmou described the situation of 
Christians in Iran as difficult, with the Iranian government 
allowing Christians to practice their religion behind closed 
doors only.  Garmou noted that while the Iranian government, 
unlike Saudi Arabia, allowed churches to operate, local 
church activities were heavily monitored and infiltrated by 
the security services.  He added that he had to seek 
government permission and interviews with security service 
officials each time he sought to travel overseas.  During one 
trip to Europe, he noted, he received a surprise call from 
the local Iranian ambassador there, as if to let him know 
that his movements were being watched. 
 
2. (C) Garmou described the number of Chaldean Christians in 
Iran as ranging from 10,000 to 12,000, with emigration taking 
a heavy toll on Iran's Christian population since 1979.  He 
described the Chaldean population in Iran as somewhat 
dispersed, with concentrations in Tehran and western Iran; 
the socio-economic level of Chaldeans was generally modest, 
with many involved in agriculture or other non-professional 
occupations due to barriers to social advancement and 
government jobs for Christians.  He observed that Iran's 
largest Christian population remained Armenian Orthodox 
Christians, whom he estimated to number about 65,000. 
 
3. (C) Garmou was downbeat on the current situation of 
Christians in Iraq, and continually referred to Operation 
Iraqi Freedom as the U.S. "invasion" of Iraq.  He described 
widespread emigration of Christians from Iraq due to security 
threats, and estimated that some 400,000 Iraqi Christians had 
fled northern Iraq for Syria.  Garmou and his colleague, a 
Paris-based Iraqi Chaldean Christian businessman named Elish 
Zako, blamed "Saudi Wahhabists" for fomenting anti-Christian 
sentiment among Iraqis, and asserted that such influence 
began quietly in the 1990's as Saddam sought to boost his 
Islamic credentials after the first Gulf War.  Zako, who said 
his sister-in-law had died in a Baghdad church bombing last 
August, described imams in Mosul as preaching anti-Christian 
incitement; one such imam, he claimed, delivered a sermon 
advising Muslims not to buy property from Christians 
emigrating from Iraq, because "they soon would be able to 
take it for free." 
 
4. (C) Both Garmou and Zako expressed concern over the 
prospect of a Shi'ite theocracy taking hold after January 30 
elections, with Garmou commenting that the U.S had seen how 
badly Christians fared under the Iranian theocratic regime. 
Despite general pessimism on the situation of Christians in 
Iraq, they reaffirmed their view that Iraqi Christians would 
participate in high numbers in January 30 elections.   Garmou 
noted that his brother was competing on PM Allawi's electoral 
list, and described Allawi as one of the few national 
politicians whom Christians could trust.  Zako dismissed 
Shi'a leaders, including Abdul Aziz al-Hakim of SCIRI and 
Ayatollah Sistani, as masking disdain for Christians under 
the Shi'a practice of "takiya," or dissimulating one's true 
views.  Reminded by poloff that registration for 
Out-of-Country voting for Iraqis residents in France was 
underway, Garmou said he would remind attendees at mass 
services in France of the need to participate in elections in 
large numbers.  He added that while the ideal would be for 
Iraqis to vote for candidates regardless of ethnic or 
religious affiliation, in the current unstable environment it 
was important for Iraqi Christians to support Christian 
candidates, to maintain a say in the political process. 
Chaldean church leaders in Iraq had already called on Iraqi 
Christians to vote on religious lines, for this very reason. 
 
5. (U) Minimize considered. 
 
 
Leach