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Iraqi Official Says Iran Has Escalated Involvement in Iraq
October 05, 2007
The Washington Post
Robin Wright and Ann Scott Tyson
Iran has significantly escalated its involvement in Iraq, "raising the heat" by supplying more sophisticated weaponry that is used against U.S. targets and undermining progress made by the current U.S. troop increase, Iraqi National Security Adviser Mowaffak al Rubaie said today.
The number of detained Iranian agents and intercepted Iranian arms shipments this year represents only the "tip of the iceberg" of Tehran's activity in Iraq, Rubaie told editors and reporters at the Post. "What we have arrested is a peanut," he said. Iran's meddling has increased particularly since the U.S. and Iran reached a stalemate after tense talks in Baghdad in August, he said.
Rubaie's remarks came as U.S. forces killed at least 25 Shiite militants in an operation that targeted a cell suspected of smuggling arms from Iran. The air strike was aimed at the commander of a militia linked to Iran's Quds Force, which is accused of conducting clandestine military operations in Iraq.
Iran has repeatedly denied meddling in Iraq, and even some U.S. officials have questioned whether the activities of the elite Quds Force are specifically authorized by Tehran's top policy makers. But Rubaie asserted that Iran's top officials, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, have approved of Iran's current strategy.
"There is one policy in Iran and others execute that policy, and that's done through the National Security Council. And its chairman is the Supreme Leader," said Rubaie, a Shiite Muslim who has had close ties with Iran in the past.
Rubaie said Iran's war supplies to militants include upgrades from RPG-7s, a shoulder-fired, rocket-propelled grenade first used by the Soviet Union in the 1960s, to the much more deadly RPG-29, a larger, new generation anti-tank weapon with warheads capable of penetrating American tank armor.
Iran also has provided militants with 240 mm missiles that can hit targets 25 to 30 miles away, the longest range missile now used against U.S. troops in Iraq. Several have been fired in recent months at the fortified Green Zone where U.S. and international officials are headquartered. Iran also has provided Iraqi militants with more advanced surface-to-air missiles, Rubaie said.
Iran is now "everywhere" in Iraq--politically, economically, socially, culturally and in support of militants and insurgents, Rubaie said, adding that he also could not rule out Iran's infiltration of Iraq's fledgling intelligence agencies.
Rubaie also had tough words for Saudi Arabia, claiming it had done nothing--"a big fat zero, zilch"-- in fostering the so-called Sunni "awakening" in Anbar province, where tribal sheikhs have begun turning against al Qaeda. The neighboring kingdom also has not done enough to foster the political reconciliation of Iraq's minority Sunnis.
"Saudi Arabia's role in the political progress has been negative. They're not helping," he said.
Rubaie, who has served in all of Iraq's governments since the 2003 invasion, predicted that the next few months are going to be particularly difficult. The more pressure the United States applies on Iran--at the United Nations and with punitive sanctions--because of Tehran's controversial nuclear program, the more tensions are likely to play out in Iraq, he told editors and reporters at the Post.
"Iran will have no choice," Rubaie said. "We are going to pay a heavy price for the escalation between Iran and the United States."
Rubaie said a resumption of a more meaningful U.S.-Iran dialogue is critical to stabilize Iraq. "The U.S. government needs to have serious engagement with Iran, not about wishy-washy things, not just to keep them busy," he said. Both Washington and Baghdad need to develop a carrot-and-stick approach that makes Iran "feel the pain" and "pay a heavy price" for its intervention in Iraq while addressing Iran's security and economic concerns.
The third and last meeting between U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker and Iranian Ambassador Hassan Kazemi Qomi on Aug. 6 was particularly difficult, Rubaie said. "They were both reading from scripts," he said.
Although both Washington and Tehran have left the door open to further talks, the first public bilateral diplomacy is for the moment moribund, he added. "We believe that when they stopped engagement in the beginning of August, that's when [Iran] upgraded the arms," he said.
Iraq is not willing to confront Iran militarily, Rubaie said. At a Nixon Center conference yesterday, he also said there should be "absolutely no--bit fat no, N-O--bombing of Iran" by the United States.
The U.S. military, along with Iraqi forces, should move gradually with a plan this year to set up about six more joint security stations inside Baghdad's large Shiite district of Sadr City, where many Iranian-controlled "special cells" of the Mahdi Army of Moqtada al Sadr are believed to have taken refuge, he said.
On the sensitive issue of the tens of thousands of Sunni fighters who have volunteered to join local police forces, Rubaie charged that the U.S. military was effectively arming former Sunni insurgents by paying them, and expressed concern that the fighters were more loyal to the U.S. military than to the Iraqi government.
"The Iraqi government needs to have the opportunity to win them first and their allegiance" as well as to command those local forces, he said.
Tension has flared in recent days as Iraqi political leaders have demanded that the U.S. military halt its recruitment of the volunteers, considered by top U.S. commanders to be the most promising development for security in Iraq in the past six months. Although the Iraqi government has hired many of the volunteers as police in the western province of Anbar, which is 95 percent Sunni, it has proven far more reluctant to endorse the Sunni fighters in mixed sectarian provinces such as Diyala, which lies between Baghdad and Iran.
A senior U.S. commander who oversees Diyala said some local Sunni volunteers have quit in frustration at delays in the government's willingness to hire them as police.
"They stood up to fight against Al Qeada. They have been in a tough fight here, shedding blood with their comrades against this despicable enemy, and they have not been compensated for that. They are looking for recognition, and they have not seen it yet," Brig. Gen. John Bednarak, deputy commander, Multinational Division North, said in an interview Thursday.
Bednarak said more than 3,000 primarily Sunni volunteers -- including tribal members and former insurgents -- have been vetted, but none has been hired by the Ministry of Interior. Instead, the U.S. military is putting them on temporary 90-day contracts under which they earn less than $300 a month.
Diyala is authorized to have 13,000 police and has requested an increase to 21,000 because of ongoing violence, but the Ministry of Interior has "held up on that for several months," said Bednarak.
"They are worried . . . that we are arming civilians that would rise up" against existing security forces. "I don't see that happening," he said.
Bednarak said it is essential to "get through this current roadblock so we can continue with additional personnel" to maintain control in Diyala towns and villages that the U.S. military and Iraqi forces have cleared in recent months. "The threat is still very real," he said.
Staff Writer Karen DeYoung contributed to this report.
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October 05, 2007
The Washington Post
Robin Wright and Ann Scott Tyson
Iran has significantly escalated its involvement in Iraq, "raising the heat" by supplying more sophisticated weaponry that is used against U.S. targets and undermining progress made by the current U.S. troop increase, Iraqi National Security Adviser Mowaffak al Rubaie said today.
The number of detained Iranian agents and intercepted Iranian arms shipments this year represents only the "tip of the iceberg" of Tehran's activity in Iraq, Rubaie told editors and reporters at the Post. "What we have arrested is a peanut," he said. Iran's meddling has increased particularly since the U.S. and Iran reached a stalemate after tense talks in Baghdad in August, he said.
Rubaie's remarks came as U.S. forces killed at least 25 Shiite militants in an operation that targeted a cell suspected of smuggling arms from Iran. The air strike was aimed at the commander of a militia linked to Iran's Quds Force, which is accused of conducting clandestine military operations in Iraq.
Iran has repeatedly denied meddling in Iraq, and even some U.S. officials have questioned whether the activities of the elite Quds Force are specifically authorized by Tehran's top policy makers. But Rubaie asserted that Iran's top officials, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, have approved of Iran's current strategy.
"There is one policy in Iran and others execute that policy, and that's done through the National Security Council. And its chairman is the Supreme Leader," said Rubaie, a Shiite Muslim who has had close ties with Iran in the past.
Rubaie said Iran's war supplies to militants include upgrades from RPG-7s, a shoulder-fired, rocket-propelled grenade first used by the Soviet Union in the 1960s, to the much more deadly RPG-29, a larger, new generation anti-tank weapon with warheads capable of penetrating American tank armor.
Iran also has provided militants with 240 mm missiles that can hit targets 25 to 30 miles away, the longest range missile now used against U.S. troops in Iraq. Several have been fired in recent months at the fortified Green Zone where U.S. and international officials are headquartered. Iran also has provided Iraqi militants with more advanced surface-to-air missiles, Rubaie said.
Iran is now "everywhere" in Iraq--politically, economically, socially, culturally and in support of militants and insurgents, Rubaie said, adding that he also could not rule out Iran's infiltration of Iraq's fledgling intelligence agencies.
Rubaie also had tough words for Saudi Arabia, claiming it had done nothing--"a big fat zero, zilch"-- in fostering the so-called Sunni "awakening" in Anbar province, where tribal sheikhs have begun turning against al Qaeda. The neighboring kingdom also has not done enough to foster the political reconciliation of Iraq's minority Sunnis.
"Saudi Arabia's role in the political progress has been negative. They're not helping," he said.
Rubaie, who has served in all of Iraq's governments since the 2003 invasion, predicted that the next few months are going to be particularly difficult. The more pressure the United States applies on Iran--at the United Nations and with punitive sanctions--because of Tehran's controversial nuclear program, the more tensions are likely to play out in Iraq, he told editors and reporters at the Post.
"Iran will have no choice," Rubaie said. "We are going to pay a heavy price for the escalation between Iran and the United States."
Rubaie said a resumption of a more meaningful U.S.-Iran dialogue is critical to stabilize Iraq. "The U.S. government needs to have serious engagement with Iran, not about wishy-washy things, not just to keep them busy," he said. Both Washington and Baghdad need to develop a carrot-and-stick approach that makes Iran "feel the pain" and "pay a heavy price" for its intervention in Iraq while addressing Iran's security and economic concerns.
The third and last meeting between U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker and Iranian Ambassador Hassan Kazemi Qomi on Aug. 6 was particularly difficult, Rubaie said. "They were both reading from scripts," he said.
Although both Washington and Tehran have left the door open to further talks, the first public bilateral diplomacy is for the moment moribund, he added. "We believe that when they stopped engagement in the beginning of August, that's when [Iran] upgraded the arms," he said.
Iraq is not willing to confront Iran militarily, Rubaie said. At a Nixon Center conference yesterday, he also said there should be "absolutely no--bit fat no, N-O--bombing of Iran" by the United States.
The U.S. military, along with Iraqi forces, should move gradually with a plan this year to set up about six more joint security stations inside Baghdad's large Shiite district of Sadr City, where many Iranian-controlled "special cells" of the Mahdi Army of Moqtada al Sadr are believed to have taken refuge, he said.
On the sensitive issue of the tens of thousands of Sunni fighters who have volunteered to join local police forces, Rubaie charged that the U.S. military was effectively arming former Sunni insurgents by paying them, and expressed concern that the fighters were more loyal to the U.S. military than to the Iraqi government.
"The Iraqi government needs to have the opportunity to win them first and their allegiance" as well as to command those local forces, he said.
Tension has flared in recent days as Iraqi political leaders have demanded that the U.S. military halt its recruitment of the volunteers, considered by top U.S. commanders to be the most promising development for security in Iraq in the past six months. Although the Iraqi government has hired many of the volunteers as police in the western province of Anbar, which is 95 percent Sunni, it has proven far more reluctant to endorse the Sunni fighters in mixed sectarian provinces such as Diyala, which lies between Baghdad and Iran.
A senior U.S. commander who oversees Diyala said some local Sunni volunteers have quit in frustration at delays in the government's willingness to hire them as police.
"They stood up to fight against Al Qeada. They have been in a tough fight here, shedding blood with their comrades against this despicable enemy, and they have not been compensated for that. They are looking for recognition, and they have not seen it yet," Brig. Gen. John Bednarak, deputy commander, Multinational Division North, said in an interview Thursday.
Bednarak said more than 3,000 primarily Sunni volunteers -- including tribal members and former insurgents -- have been vetted, but none has been hired by the Ministry of Interior. Instead, the U.S. military is putting them on temporary 90-day contracts under which they earn less than $300 a month.
Diyala is authorized to have 13,000 police and has requested an increase to 21,000 because of ongoing violence, but the Ministry of Interior has "held up on that for several months," said Bednarak.
"They are worried . . . that we are arming civilians that would rise up" against existing security forces. "I don't see that happening," he said.
Bednarak said it is essential to "get through this current roadblock so we can continue with additional personnel" to maintain control in Diyala towns and villages that the U.S. military and Iraqi forces have cleared in recent months. "The threat is still very real," he said.
Staff Writer Karen DeYoung contributed to this report.
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