Iran denies US allegations of military interference in Iraq
Iraq-Iran-USA, Politics, 7/2/2007

Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki has said that Iran is worried about humanitarian disaster in Iraq and it is a religious obligation to stop bloodshed in the war-torn country.

Speaking in an interview with the Arab-language news channel, Al-Jazeera, broadcast Sunday evening, the minister said the situation in Iraq is a "painful tragedy." "The people of Iraq welcomed fall of the country's dictator, Saddam Hussein, four years ago as they thought a cruel regime was overthrown but nobody has ever thought that over four million Iraqis would become homeless and displaced and hundreds of thousands would lose their lives after the fall of Saddam's regime," Mottaki said.

Rejecting the allegations of Iran arming Iraqi militia, Mottaki told the Qatar-based satellite networks, "Tehran is worried about the current bloodshed in Iraq.

"Iran supports Iraq's national unity and its territorial integrity as well as participation of all Iraqis to determine their own destiny," Mottaki stressed.

He noted that Iran suffers more than others from insecurity in Iraq.

Arguing that terrorist and extremists groups were the real cause of the ongoing unrest in Iraq, Mottaki said, "Iran condemns all terrorist acts and conflicts made by any group.

"Tehran has even accepted to talk with its enemies to help restore security of Iraq," he said adding the talks had "good outcome." Mottaki stressed that "collective cooperation of all regional countries" could help restore peace and security to Iraq.

Mottaki noted that the US and other foreign forces had to prove their support for Iraq's security in practice, a charge which also the US makes against Iran. Mottaki said that all parties should support democratic organizations in Iraq.

A spokesman for Multinational Force Iraq said today that while al Qaida in Iraq remains the main enemy in the country, coalition and Iraqi forces are increasingly targeting groups whose training, funding and supplies come from Iran.

US Army Brig. Gen. Kevin J. Bergner, spokesman for Multinational Force Iraq, said Iran is funding Hizbullah operatives in Iraq. Actions against these Iraqi groups have allowed coalition intelligence officials to piece together the Iranian connection to terrorism in Iraq. Bergner said that Iran's Quds Force, a special branch of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, is training, funding and arming the Iraqi groups.

"It shows how Iranian operatives are using Lebanese surrogates to create Hizbullah-like capabilities," Bergner said. "And it paints a picture of the level of effort in funding and arming extremist groups in Iraq."

The general said the coalition and Iraqi security forces are working to interdict the flow from Iran of weapons, funding and training.

Bergner said these special Iraqi groups have evolved over the past three years into largely rogue elements that use a cellular structure to operate independently.

"In the past few months, since the surge of forces began, Iraqi and coalition forces have conducted a range of operations against these special groups," he said, noting that coalition and Iraqi forces have killed or captured 21 of the higher-level operatives since February.

The groups operate throughout Iraq. They planned and executed a string of bombings, kidnappings, sectarian murders and more against Iraqi citizens, Iraqi forces and coalition personnel. They receive arms -- including explosively formed penetrators, the most deadly form of improvised explosive device -- and funding from Iran. They also have received planning help and orders from Iran, Bergner said.

One group leader was Azhar Dulaymi, whom coalition forces killed May 19. Bergner said the terrorist led the Jan. 20 attack on the Provincial Joint Coordination Center in Karbala that killed five US soldiers. Dulaymi worked closely with Ali Musa Daqduq and Qayis Khazali, two men with direct links to Iran.

Coalition forces captured Daqduq on March 20. "He is Lebanese-born and has served for the past 24 years in Lebanese Hizbullah," Bergner said. "He was in Iraq working as a surrogate for Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps Quds Force operatives involved with special groups."

Daqduq, a member of Hizbullah in Lebanon since 1983, served as a bodyguard for Hizbullah leader Sayyad Hassan Nazrullah. He also led Hizbullah operations in large areas of Lebanon, Bergner said.

"In 2005, he was directed by senior Lebanese Hizbullah leadership to go to Iran and work with the Quds Force to train Iraqi extremists," the general said. "In May 2006, he traveled to Tehran with Yussef Hashim, a fellow Lebanese Hizbullah and head of their operations in Iraq. There they met with the commander and deputy commander of the Iranian Quds Force special external operations."

Daqduq was ordered to Iraq to report on the training and operations of the Iraqi special groups. "In the year prior to his capture, Ali Musa Daqduq made four trips to Iraq," Bergner said. "He monitored and reported on the training and arming of special groups in mortars and rockets, manufacturing and employment of improvised explosive devices, and kidnapping operations. Most significantly, he was tasked to organize the special groups in ways that mirrored how Hizbullah was organized in Lebanon."

Daqduq also helped the Quds Force in training Iraqis inside Iran. "Quds Force, along with Hizbullah instructors train approximately 20 to 60 Iraqis at a time, sending them back to Iraq organized into these special groups," he said. "They are being taught how to use (explosively formed penetrators), mortars, rockets, as well as intelligence, sniper and kidnapping operations."

The Quds Force also supplies the groups with weapons and a funding stream of between $750,000 to $3 million a month. "Without this support, these special groups would be hard-pressed to conduct their operations in Iraq," Bergner said.

When captured, Daqduq had detailed documents that discussed tactics to attack Iraqi and coalition forces. "He also had a personal journal that shows his involvement with extremist operations in Iraq," the general said. "His diary also notes meeting with special group members who were targeting other Iraqis and coalition forces in the Diyala province using IEDs, as well as small-arms fire."

Khazali was captured with Daqduq. He was in charge of these groups throughout Iraq since June 2006. He is an Iraqi who worked to develop the Iraqi groups into a network similar to Hizbullah.

"It is important to point out that both Ali Musa Daqduq and Qayis Khazali state that senior leadership within the Quds Force knew of and supported planning for the eventual Karbala attack that killed five coalition soldiers," Bergner said. "Ali Musa Daqduq contends the Iraqi special groups could not have conducted this complex operation without the support and direction of the Quds Force.

"Ali Musa Daqduq and Qayis Khazali both confirm that Qayis Khazali authorized the operation and Azhar al Dulaymi, who we killed in an operation earlier this year, executed the operation."

All of this is counter to pledges Iran has made to the Iraqi government to respect territorial boundaries and work to ease violence inside Iraq, Bergner said.

"The government of Iran has committed to help work with the government of Iraq in addressing the security problems in this country," he said. "I think the most clear and important message to take from this is, there does not seem to be any follow-through on the commitment that Iran has made to work with Iraq in addressing the... destabilizing security issues here in Iraq."

Asked if Iran was using Iraq as a place to settle scores with other countries, Mottaki said "Iran express its ideas very clearly in its territory and believes that there is no need to settle counts with anyone. "Nowhere in the Islamic world is a place for settling counts as Iran is seeking peace for the Muslim world and for all mankind as well," Mottaki said.

Commenting on Iran's alleged support for the Lebanese Hizbullah during Israel's invasion of Lebanon last summer, he said Iran had called for national solidarity to thwart Israeli aggression on Lebanon.

Also, Iran's Defense Minister Brigadier General Mostafa Mohamad-Najjar yesterday dismissed as "sheer lie" recent US' allegations that Iran has military intervention in Iraq and supports terrorist groups in the country and said such charges are aimed at fomenting the US-led psychological war.

Iran regards Iraq's security as its own, he underlined. "Occupation of Iraq followed a big lie," he said, adding that escalation of tension in the occupied regions and resort to terrorist tactics have been the customary methods of the CIA to justify the US presence in the region, cover up Washington's past failures and mislead public opinion in the US.

The type of terrorist moves and actions in Iraq point to the fact that CIA has a share in terrorist catastrophes and insecurity in Iraq, said the minister, adding that Iran has repeatedly announced readiness for cooperation with the Iraqi government for full restoration of security and calm in the country. "In this connection, Iran will spare no effort," he emphasized.

Iran's cooperation would be in line with the accords signed with the Iraqi national government, he said.

Blaming others and trading allegations are among other tactics the US employs to compensate its failures in Iraq, reiterated the minister, adding that the "totally false" rumours, such as transfer of Iranian-made missiles to Syria, the country's military and arms assistance to terrorist groups and its intelligence and military activities in Iraq, are spread by the White House extremists.

The US psychological warfare and propaganda campaign cannot undermine cooperation between Iran and the Iraqi democratic government, he said, adding that it would be better for the US neo-conservatives to revise their code of conduct and their policies, avoid such wicked moves and pull their forces out of Iraq based on the timetable.

Previous Stories:
  Iran demands contact with five US kidnapped diplomats in Iraq   (6/12/2007)
  On the Iran-US meeting for Iraq's security   (5/28/2007)
  US needs Iran's assistance to rid itself of Iraq quagmire: Iranian   (5/28/2007)

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