BAGHDAD — Politicians here are being offered substantial sums of money by the Iranian government, according to an Iraqi lawmaker who says the next front in the war for Iraqi freedom will be to ward off unwanted influence from the mullahs in Tehran.

Like most of the members of the Iraqi parliament, both Sunni and Shiite, Mithal al-Alusi has been offered cash by the Iranian ambassador to Iraq, Hassan Kazemi Qomi. But unlike most of his colleagues in the parliament, Mr. al-Alusi has made the bribe public by telling the story to this journalist.

Sitting in his living room underneath a photo of his two sons who were slain by terrorists in 2005, Mr. al-Alusi says at first the offer of influence was conveyed by a local sheik he knew but declined to name. “They offered me anything I want,” he said.

A meeting was arranged through the interlocutor with Mr. Qomi, who brought to Mr. al-Alusi’s office a fine red Persian carpet. “I told the ambassador,” Mr. al-Alusi said, “I have a problem. You are involved in the terrorist problems of Iraq.” The ambassador replied that Iran had no connection to terrorism, but Mr. al-Alusi continued: “I said, ‘You cannot yet attack London or New York with the atom bomb you build, but I am your neighbor. You could attack us.'”

Despite this blunt exchange, Mr. Qomi nonetheless offered to fly Mr. al-Alusi to Tehran, where he was offered a meeting with senior regime leaders, including President Ahmadinejad, a man who has promised to wipe Israel from the map.

Mr. al-Alusi first drew press attention in 2004, when he attended an Israeli counterterrorism conference as an Iraqi official. Since then, Mr. al-Alusi has defended his visit to the Jewish state, making him unusual among Iraqi Arab politicians.

Mr. al-Alusi drew up a letter conveying his acceptance of the offer to visit Iran. “Most of the time, they expect these sorts of trips will be secret. It is in Tehran where they try to recruit us. But I said I would be happy to visit with Iranian officials,” he said.

The fact that Iran would be interested in buying Mr. al-Alusi and his single vote in parliament is in itself a sign of both this politician’s growing appeal to Iraqis and the Iranian strategy to diversify their influence to include politicians outside the Shiite bloc of religious parties that wield a narrow majority in the parliament.

Mr. al-Alusi said yesterday that he believed the soft influence of Iranians through bribes and economic leverage is even more dangerous than the role the Islamic Republic plays in facilitating and supporting the terrorists here.

And in this respect Mr. al-Alusi is not alone. A senior Iraqi minister here last week, who asked to speak anonymously, said that it is well known that Iranians are paying off both Sunni and Shiite legislators. “Any Iraqi who takes this money should be ashamed, but many are taking it,” the minister said.

American officials also say that Iranian influenced corruption is a problem, though they refused to say so on the record because of a general policy of not publicly undercutting the Iraqi government. But a National Security Council strategy released in January to coincide with the president’s announcement of the military surge said bluntly that Iranian agents had “burrowed” into the Iraqi national security structures. Indeed one criticism of the new national security ministry, created as a Shiite counterweight to the CIA-created and largely Sunni Iraqi Intelligence agency, is that its membership is effectively vetted by Iran’s revolutionary guard.

Nonetheless, the Iranian influence may not be the only factor influencing the government. While Iranian leaders have said since November publicly that America should leave Iraq, no major Shiite parties here, with the exception to lawmakers loyal to Moqtada al-Sadr, have called for the withdrawal of troops. Last week, Prime Minister Maliki rejected calls from Mr. Sadr’s bloc to submit a withdrawal timetable, a refusal that led to the resignation of six Sadrist ministers from the coalition.

Money is not the only way Iran wields influence. Iran provides all of the electricity to the Kurdish province of Sulimaniya, and economically, the Kurdish city of the same name is dependent almost entirely on trade with Iran. The governor of Suliminiya, in an interview, diplomatically called Iranians “brothers.” “We are brothers, not friends. Brothers you cannot choose, you cannot choose your neighbor,” he said.