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Tuesday, 05 July 2005 |
 Iran Focus: London, Jul. 6 – Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim Al-Jaafari has postponed his official visit to Iran until next week, according to informed sources. No reason has been given for the unexpected decision.
The official Iranian news agency reported that Al-Jaafari would come to Tehran on July 12, while Iraqi Ambassador Mohammad Majid Abbas had said earlier that the Iraqi prime minister was expected in Tehran this week.
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Monday, 13 June 2005 |
 UPI: Iran may not have the largest number of insurgents in Iraq, but what it lacks in quantity, it makes up for in quality, Rep. Curt Weldon, R-Pa., said Sunday. Weldon, appearing on NBC's "Meet the Press," said Iraqi officials have told him "Syria may have the largest number (of insurgents) from outside of Iraqi country, but Iran overwhelmingly has the quality behind the insurgency." |
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Thursday, 02 June 2005 |
 AP: The United States didn't invite Iran to an international conference on Iraq reconstruction, which became awkwardly clear Thursday when a European diplomat said Iran is welcome in spite of long-standing enmity between Washington and the Islamic regime in Tehran. |
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Thursday, 02 June 2005 |
 Iran Focus: Baghdad, Jun. 02 – The Iranian consul in the Iraqi province of Babil (south of Baghdad) was arrested, according
to an Iraqi daily. The consul was arrested when he was approached by an Iraq police lieutenant and refused to show his passport on request, the Al-Afaq daily wrote in its Tuesday edition, quoting the Iraqi Human Rights group. |
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Monday, 30 May 2005 |
 Iran Focus: Baghdad, May 30 – Iraqi security forces in the city of Suleimaniya (Iraqi Kurdistan) yesterday arrested a drug ring that included six Iranians and confiscated large amounts of illegal drugs smuggled from Iran and Afghanistan, the Iraqi daily Al-Watan said today. A security official in the city announced that the group, who were also marketing the drugs, had been under police surveillance. |
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Wednesday, 18 May 2005 |
 New York Times: Wasting little time in registering its new influence in Iraq, Iran sent its foreign minister to Baghdad on Tuesday only 48 hours after Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice became the first high-level visitor to hold talks with Iraq's new Shiite-majority government. The arrival of the Iranian, Kamal Kharrazi, underscored changes in the political landscape that many Iraqis find dizzying: almost 25 years after Iraq and Iran started an eight-year war that left a million people dead, the government in Baghdad is now led by officials with close personal, religious and political ties to Iran's ruling Shiite ayatollahs. |
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Monday, 16 May 2005 |
 United Press International: The U.S. State Department said Monday Iran must make its ties with Iraq "transparent" and stay out of its neighbor's politics. "Iran's relations with people inside Iraq are not transparent," spokesman Richard Boucher said. "They need to be made transparent." |
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Sunday, 15 May 2005 |
 Reuters: Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice made a surprise visit to Iraq on Sunday for talks with political leaders grappling with a surge in violence since a new cabinet was formed last month. |
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Thursday, 12 May 2005 |
 Washington Times: He survived 14 assassination attempts as governor of Iraq's Diyala province and is ready to risk his life again as a candidate in the parliamentary elections expected
in December. Dr. Abdullah Rasheed al-Jabouri, a dentist by profession, also learned about dirty politics when his opponents on the provincial election commission blocked him from running in the January elections by leaving his name off the ballot. |
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Wednesday, 11 May 2005 |
 Iran Focus: Washington, May 11 – A briefing was held in the United States Congress yesterday entitled “Iraq's Future: The Iranian Impact” on the initiative of the Iran Human Rights and Democracy Caucus in the House of Representatives, co-chaired by Congressman Thomas Tancredo (R-Col) and Congressman Bob Filner (D-Cal). The panel included, Dr.
Sa'd Abdullah Al-Jabouri, the former governor of Iraq’s Diyala province, which borders Iran and is where the main Iranian opposition People’s Mojahedin (PMOI) are based.
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Monday, 09 May 2005 |
 U.S. Newswire: The Iran Human Rights and Democracy Caucus in the House of Representatives, co-chaired by Reps. Thomas Tancredo (R-Colo.) and Bob Filner (D-Calif.), will hold a briefing on "Iraq's Future: The Iranian Impact" on Tuesday, May 10, 2005 in room 2255 in Rayburn House Office Building.
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Thursday, 05 May 2005 |
 Iran Focus: Baghdad, May 05 – Some 30 individuals arrested
in the Iraqi province of Diyala have admitted to acting on the orders of Iran’s notorious Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) to spur sectarian violence to destabilise the region, according to a senior Iraqi police official. |
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Saturday, 30 April 2005 |
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Daily Telegraph: Control of Iraq's police force was handed to a Shia Arab party with historic links to Iran yesterday despite warnings by American intelligence that Iranian agents have infiltrated the group's paramilitary wing. The announcement that Baqir Soulagh, a member of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (Sciri), is to be interior minister risks alienating Iraq's Sunni Arab community whose support is needed if the insurgency is to be defeated. |
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Sunday, 17 April 2005 |
 Iran Focus: Baghdad, Apr. 17 – Leaders and representatives of 11 Iraqi political parties and groups unveiled a petition signed by 2.8 million Iraqis, sharply criticising neighbouring Iran’s rising meddling in Iraq and warning of the spectre of “Islamic fundamentalism’s stealthy domination” of their country. The announcement came in a conference yesterday in Baghdad’s Palestine Hotel in the presence of about 500 Iraqis representing political, social and cultural groups. |
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Sunday, 10 April 2005 |
 Iran Focus: Baghdad, Apr. 10 - More than 30 armed agents dispatched from Iran were arrested in the eastern Iraqi province of Diyala, according to sources close to the Iranian opposition People’s Mojahedin. Sources said that the 30 agents were mercenaries of the elite Qods (Jerusalem) Force branch of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps.
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Saturday, 09 April 2005 |
 Iran Focus: Baghdad, Apr. 09 – Two organised gangs responsible for a number of kidnappings and violent operations are run by a branch of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps, according to information obtained by sources close to the Iranian opposition People’s Mojahedin. |
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Friday, 08 April 2005 |
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Iran Focus: Baghdad, Apr. 08 – Some four tons of illicit drugs imported from Iran were confiscated in the southern Iraqi city of Basra, according to an Iraqi daily. The Al-Mashreq daily wrote yesterday, “On Wednesday authorities in the southern Iraqi city of Basra announced that security forces had rounded up four tons of cannabis which had been smuggled from Iran”. |
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Friday, 08 April 2005 |
 Iran Focus: Baghdad, Apr. 08 – A prominent Iraqi daily accused Iran’s leadership of dispatching mercenaries to one of Shiite Iraq’s holiest cities.
The Al-Forat daily reported that Iranian agents were planning to infiltrate Karbala following the establishment of Iraq’s new interim-government. |
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Friday, 08 April 2005 |
 Daily Telegraph: Iraq named its first democratically elected head of government in 50 years yesterday.
Ibrahim Jaafari, a Shia politician backed by Islamic clerics and with close ties to Iran, was appointed prime minister at a ceremony in Baghdad.
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Monday, 04 April 2005 |
 Iran Focus: London, Apr. 04 – Iran’s hard-line leaders are setting up a “secret government” in Iraq, according to a prominent Arabic language news outlet. The Saudi-affiliated Elaph website wrote in its Friday issue, “The Iranian Intelligence Ministry is creating a secret government in Iraq”. |
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Tuesday, 29 March 2005 |
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AFP: Iraqi border guards have temporarily shut one of the main frontier posts with Iran, blocking large numbers of pilgrims from entering the country ahead of a major Shiite Muslim holy day, press reports said Tuesday. According to the official news agency IRNA, the Shalamsheh crossing point -- situated close to the southern Iraqi city of Basra -- was closed on Monday, the eve of the end of mourning for the seventh-century martyrdom of Shiite Imam Hussein. |
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Wednesday, 23 March 2005 |
 AP: Worried about people sneaking in from Iran, U.S. troops and Iraqi border guards are focusing their attention on the "socket" - a remote section of frontier that juts into Iran and is used by smugglers, shepherds and even jobs hunters for illegal crossings. The strongest concern, however, is that the rugged area is being used by those helping Iraq's insurgency. |
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Thursday, 17 March 2005 |
 Reuters: The director of the CIA accused Iran on Thursday of meddling in Iraq and said Syria was not working hard enough to stop militants entering the country to undermine Baghdad's efforts at stability. "I think it's fair to say that just about everybody who's been watching understands that Iran has been meddling in the affairs of Iraq," CIA Director Porter Goss told the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee in a presentation on ... |
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Saturday, 05 March 2005 |
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AP: The head of a small secular political party in Iraq who lost his two sons in a suicide bombing last month is making the rounds of the U.S. capital to warn that Iran and Syria are trying to throttle democracy in his country. |
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Friday, 04 March 2005 |
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Iran Focus: Baghdad, Mar. 04 – Border-police in the central Iraqi province of Wassit said that they have arrested 1,500 Iranians who had entered the country illegally with the intention of distributing illegal drugs. The group had entered onto Iraqi soil via the Badra region, on the border with Iran, without any identity cards, passports or travel documents, according to a border-police source. |
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Thursday, 03 March 2005 |
 UPI: The White House accused Iran Thursday of trying to
shape Iraq's transitional government and said such actions needed to stop. Spokesman Scott McClellan did not detail how that influence was being exerted. "We have had increasing concerns about Iran trying to influence the shape of the transitional government," he said. "This must be an Iraqi process free from outside interference, especially from those
in the neighborhood." |
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Tuesday, 01 March 2005 |
 Voice of America: The general who commands all U.S. military operations in the Middle East has accused Iran and Syria of continuing to contribute to the problems in Iraq by facilitating the insurgency and meddling in Iraqi politics. In testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee, General John Abizaid said Iran and Syria have both been "unhelpful" in Iraq, contributing to the country's instability. |
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Monday, 28 February 2005 |
 AP: Many consider Abdel Aziz al-Hakim, the prominent cleric who leads the United Iraqi Alliance, to have emerged as the country's
top Shiite power broker after the Jan. 30 elections.
A leader of a key Shiite political organization, the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, al-Hakim opposed Saddam Hussein from exile in Iran before returning after the U.S.-led invasion. |
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Monday, 28 February 2005 |
 Iran Focus: London, Feb. 28 – The Iranian regime has at least 40,000 agents in Iraq on its payroll, according to a report broadcast by an Iranian opposition television. Simaye Azadi, a Persian-language satellite television network close to the opposition National Council of Resistance, said it had obtained documents from Fajr Garrison of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, which showed that the Islamic republic was running a vast underground network in Iraq with 40,000 agents on its payroll. |
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Wednesday, 23 February 2005 |
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Los Angeles Times: Two years ago, as the U.S. planned to march into Baghdad, many in the Bush administration had a vision for Iraq's first freely elected government in decades. It would be a pro-U.S. regime that would support American military bases, embrace U.S. businesses and serve as a model for democracy in the region. Now as Ibrahim Jafari seems certain to become Iraq's new prime minister, the U.S. faces the prospect of dealing with a government whose views may be closer to Tehran's than to Washington's. And U.S. officials are left wondering how many of their assumptions will prove true. |
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