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Iran Gets a Warning from Iraq
1.5.2006
By ELI LAKE
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CAIRO, Egypt, May
1, 2006- Iraq's Defense Ministry will be preparing
for more Iranian incursions into Iraqi territory
this week after issuing a stern warning to its
neighbor to end security sweeps and mortar attacks
in Iraq in pursuit of Kurdish rebels.
The warning from the ministry, currently headed by a
Sunni Arab politician, Saadoun Dulaimi, comes after
the Iraqi national security adviser, Muwafaq al-Rubaie,
said this weekend that he expected all foreign
troops to leave Iraq by mid-2008.
Mr. al-Rubaie's statement was immediately challenged
by Secretary of State Rice. "The president has made
very clear that he's going to listen to his
commanders for what troop levels are needed," she
told ABC's "This Week."
The repeated Iranian incursions into Iraq could
complicate any coalition plans to speed up the
withdrawal of the 130,000 American troops and others
from Britain and elsewhere on the ground in Iraq, a
number that has been criticized as both too large
and too small by critics of the White House war
policy.
As America presses the United Nations for the
diplomatic isolation of Iran, which will be the
subject of further discussions at the Security
Council this week, the Tehran regime has become
increasingly anti-American and bellicose in its
statements, dismissing threats aimed at curbing its
nuclear program.
Due to a history of supporting its core members when
they were exile, Iran also wields considerable
influence over the majority Shiite party that is
negotiating the new government in Baghdad.
The Iraqi Defense Ministry issued a statement
accusing Iranian soldiers of bombing border areas
near the town of Hajj Umran, the BBC reported
yesterday. While this is not the first time the
ministry has accused Iran of invading its territory,
its timing is significant because the new government
is being put together in Baghdad after the United
Iraqi Alliance - the Shiite bloc - nominated Nouri
al-Maliki as prime minister.
Mr. al-Maliki promised over the weekend to reserve
appointments to the Defense Ministry for political
independents unaffiliated with the major ethnic
parties. Mr. Dulaimi was such a candidate.
The details of the charges against Iran are also
important.When the Iraqi government was under the
control of Ayad Allawi, the Sunni-partisan Defense
Ministry made numerous accusations against the
Iranians for crossing the border. American
commanders in Iraq believe the improvised explosive
devices planted on the roadsides that make routine
troop patrols so treacherous are being designed in
and exported from Iran.
Despite the border incursions, Iran and Iraq have
strengthened their ties since the fall of Saddam.
Both countries have kept the border between them
open; both have agreed in principle to
counterterrorism pacts,and Iraqi regional
governments allow Iranian spies a free run of the
southern Shiite majority provinces.
Yesterday the Defense Ministry said Iranian forces
were rounding up members of the Kurdistan Workers
Party, or PKK, an organization that conducted a wave
of terror against Turkey for much of the 1990s. At
that time, legitimate Kurdish parties in Iraq,
particularly the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan,
enjoyed friendly relations with Iran.
While mortar attacks and troop movements across the
Iranian border might underscore the need for a
strong American troop presence in Iraq, this is not
how Mr. al-Rubaie sees it. "By the end of this year,
the number of multinational forces or the coalition
forces probably would be less than 100,000," he
said. "By the end of next year, the overwhelming
majority of the coalition would have left the
country, and probably by the middle of 2008 there
will be no foreign soldier in the country."
Yesterday Secretary of State Rice differed from this
assessment. "Let's get their security forces ready.
Let's see what they're capable of doing," she said.
"They are taking more territory themselves. They are
taking on more responsibility, for instance, for the
highway between the airport and the international
zone, which they've done in some ways better than we
did. They've been able to secure it better than we
did ...So we will take this a step at a time."
The Sun reported last year that America had already
begun soliciting contracts for a military
communications network in Iraq that some experts
associated with permanent bases.
To date, America and Iraq have not negotiated a
status of forces agreement that would establish the
conditions for the permanent maintenance of Ameri
can troops in Iraq, similar to the agreements
reached with Japan and Germany after World War II.
Speaking yesterday in New York to about 350 Jews
from the former Soviet Union, Senator Clinton said
terrorism and the Iranian nuclear threat are global
problems from which no nation is immune.
She criticized Russia, which has a number of
lucrative arms contracts with Iran. "If the current
Russian government thinks it can control Iran and
that they won't turn on them, I think they have a
very short-sighted view of history," Senator Clinton
said at the annual gala of UJA-Federation of New
York's Russian Division.
She also criticized China for its economic ties to
Iran, whose president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has
repeatedly stated his desire to obliterate Israel.
The international community, she said, must present
a united front against a nuclear Iran, and against
Hamas, the terrorist organization at the helm of the
government of the Palestinian Authority. "No one in
the world should recognize Hamas until it renounces
terrorism and recognizes Israel's right to exist,"
she said.
NY Sun.com
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