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Author Topic: Al-Maliki: Iraq won't be battleground for U.S., Iran  (Read 759 times)

rnicklaus

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Al-Maliki: Iraq won't be battleground for U.S., Iran
« on: January 31, 2007, 06:29:35 PM »

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Iraq's prime minister said Wednesday he's sure Iran is behind some attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq and he won't allow his country to be a battleground for the two nations.

"We have told the Iranians and the Americans, 'We know that you have a problem with each other, but we are asking you, please solve your problems outside Iraq,' " Nuri al-Maliki told CNN.

"We will not accept Iran to use Iraq to attack the American forces," al-Maliki said Wednesday in an exclusive interview with CNN. (Read more of al-Maliki interview)

"We don't want the American forces to take Iraq as a field to attack Iran or Syria," he added.

Asked about the role of Iran in Iraq, al-Maliki said he was confident that Iranian influence was behind attacks on U.S. forces. "It exists, and I assure you it exists," he said.

Iranian-U.S. tensions have been ratcheted up recently, with two U.S. officials theorizing about the possibility that Iran was involved in a January 20 attack that killed five U.S. soldiers.

Two officials from separate U.S. government agencies said Tuesday the Pentagon is investigating whether the attack on a military compound in Karbala was carried out by Iranians or Iranian-trained operatives.

"People are looking at it seriously," one of the officials said, adding that the Iranian connection was a leading theory in the investigation.

The second official said: "We believe it's possible the executors of the attack were Iranian or Iranian-trained."

The five soldiers were abducted and killed in the sophisticated attack by men wearing American-style uniforms, according to U.S. military reports. (Watch how attackers got into the compound )

Both officials stressed the Iranian-involvement theory is only a preliminary view, and there is no conclusion. They agreed this possibility is under consideration because of the sophistication of the attack and the level of coordination.

"This was beyond what we have seen militias or foreign fighters do," the second official said.

Al-Maliki said the Americans were basing their hunches about Iranian activities in Iraq on intelligence they've amassed.

Some Iraqis speculate that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps carried out the attack in retaliation for the January 11 capture by U.S. forces of five of its members in Irbil, according to a Time.com article published Tuesday. (Read the article)

The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps has a reputation for taking harsh and unrelenting revenge on its enemies, the Time.com article says. The five Iranians remain in U.S. custody.

Suggestions of Iranian involvement in the Karbala attack are part of a larger confrontation between Iran and the United States.

Washington accuses Tehran of fomenting terror attacks worldwide and pursuing a nuclear program that could lead to the development of weaponry. Iran has denied those assertions.

The Bush administration has authorized U.S. forces to kill or capture Iranian agents plotting attacks in Iraq, a U.S. national security official said last week. The policy, approved by President Bush in the last couple of months, is aimed at Iranian agents planning attacks with Iraqi militiamen, the official said.

Bush has said that he has no problem with the policy, if it protects U.S. soldiers. (Full story)

"If Iran escalates its military actions in Iraq to the detriment of our troops and/or innocent Iraqi people, we will respond firmly," Bush said Monday on National Public Radio.

A top U.S. general in Iraq said Tuesday that Iran is supplying Iraqi militias with weapons, including Katyusha rockets and rocket-propelled grenades, USA Today reported.

Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno told the newspaper that the military could trace some weapons back to Iran by their serial numbers.

The Associated Press reported last week that a second U.S. aircraft carrier is on its way to the Persian Gulf, according to U.S. officials. The officials told the AP that the USS John C. Stennis, due to arrive in Mideast waters within weeks, is intended as a warning to Iran.

CNN's Aneesh Raman, who has reported from Tehran over the past year, said Tuesday that Iranians are taking the threats seriously.

"The Iranian people are increasingly concerned that in the coming months, military action of some kind will either come into Iran, or Iran will be dragged into a broader struggle," Raman said. "Every time I went [to Iran], there was increased fear, a sense that war clouds were looming."
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R.N.

PRobb

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Re: Al-Maliki: Iraq won't be battleground for U.S., Iran
« Reply #1 on: January 31, 2007, 07:52:44 PM »

We created the chaos in Iraq and are desperately trying shape an outcome that is in our national interest. Iran did not create the chaos, but are taking advantage of it to try for an outcome in their interest. And the Iraqis are in the middle. We will be gone at some point. Whether soon or in ten years, we will be gone. Iran will still be next door. Why is anyone surprised that Iran is involved?

We are reaping what Bush has sown.
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The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.
-Edmund Burke

PookyNMR

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Re: Al-Maliki: Iraq won't be battleground for U.S., Iran
« Reply #2 on: January 31, 2007, 11:08:39 PM »

Question:  Who is funding Iran?

(Hint:  China and Russia)

The problem is getting much, much worse than we think.........

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Nathan Rousu

wwittman

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Re: Al-Maliki: Iraq won't be battleground for U.S., Iran
« Reply #3 on: January 31, 2007, 11:17:48 PM »

As Bill Clinton said to me (really),
The Russians are a lot CLOSER to a potential Iranian nuclear weapon, and they have their own troubles with their muslim population in Chechnya.


If anything, they are more "afraid" of a crazy Iran than we are.

but this is still pointless sabre rattling from the Bush neo-con crazies.

they are using almost EXACTLY the rhetoric they used to promote invading Iraq now about Iran.


but does anyone really think that pronouncements from Al-Maliki, the puppet, MATTER?
If they could ignore Saddam, they can ignore Al-Maliki.

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William Wittman
Producer/Engineer
(Cyndi Lauper, Joan Osborne, The Fixx, The Outfield, Hooters...)
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