U.S. unveils evidence Iran fueling Iraq war
Pastor Dale Morgan
U.S. unveils evidence Iran fueling Iraq war*
Expert who exposed nuke program says Tehran agents hold top posts in Baghdad
Posted: January 30, 2007
Agents on Tehran's payroll involved in death squads hold prominent
positions in the U.S.-backed Iraqi government and National Assembly,
according to an expert on Iran who broke the news about the country's
nuclear weapons program.
Alireza Jafarzadeh, author of the new book "The Iran threat: President
Ahmadinejad and the Coming Nuclear Crisis," said the efforts by Iran to
place its agents in the Iraqi government form a part of Tehran's larger
plan to export its revolution.
The U.S. is having such a difficult time winning the war, he said,
because Iran is fueling the Iraqis with bombs and weapons that are
killing American soldiers.
Tomorrow, Jafarzadeh noted, the U.S. ambassador to Baghdad, Zalmay
Khalilzad, will hold a news conference to present a dossier of Iran's
efforts to fuel sectarian violence in Iraq.
The administration's effort to prove its assertion Iran is helping fuel
the violence in Iraq comes as Democratic senators at a Senate Foreign
Relations Committee hearing today warned against a drift toward war with
Tehran.
Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., a candidate for president in 2008, said
senators will demand "clarity and transparency in terms of U.S. policy
so that we don't repeat some of the mistakes that have been made in the
past."
"What I think many of us are concerned about is that we stumble into
active hostilities with Iran without having aggressively pursued
diplomatic approaches, without the American people understanding exactly
what's taking place," Obama told John Negroponte, picked to become
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's deputy.
Jafarzadeh said Iran is determined to succeed on three fronts.
"First and foremost, on the Iraqi front, where Iran is aggressively
escalating its influence and presence in Iraq. Secondly, the nuclear
front; nothing will deter them on this point. Finally, Iran wants to
step up terrorism in the region."
Jafarzadeh said Iran is a "country to be reckoned with," and the U.S.
"will never win the battle with the military or negotiations."
In August 2002, with access to dissident groups inside Iran, Jafarzadeh
was the first to break the news of Iran's nuclear programs and its
secret nuclear facilities in Natanz and Arak.
Jafarzadeh describes Iran as a five-headed dragon, with each head as a
deadly force: Interference in Iraq, nuclear weapons program, terrorism,
opposition to peace in the Middle East and suppression of its domestic
population.
"The only way to slay this dragon is to rely on the Achilles heel of the
regime – the highly-motivated, dissatisfied population of young people
in Iran, led by an organized opposition."
Jafarzadeh noted that Thursday marks the beginning of the "10-day Dawn"
that led to the Feb.11, 1979, Islamic revolution. The regime plans
high-profile activities in which President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will
begin "making a lot of noise," which will culminate in dismissing the
U.N. Security Council Resolution asking Iran to halt its enrichment
programs.
Jafarzadeh says the regime is convinced the U.S. is in a weak political
position that Tehran can use to its advantage. U.S. military might is
not working in the Middle East, specifically in Iraq, he says.
"The way to deal with Iran is not with war, bombs or negotiations; that
doesn't work," Jafarzadeh asserted. "A major change in politics and a
new approach is what is necessary. The international community must
support the young people of Iran, the majority of whom want a free and
democratic nation. That is what will frighten the Iranian president."
The U.S., he says, must have a long-term plan to stop the Iran's
aggressiveness before it gets the nuclear bomb and "turns Iraq into a
sister Islamic republic."