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Saturday, 25 September 2004 |
 Washington Post: The Bush administration is exploring several steps aimed at containing Tehran's growing influence in Iraq, according to U.S. officials, who say a split between the Pentagon and the State Department has paralyzed the administration's ability to craft a long-term policy on Iran for three years.
As one measure, the United States has earmarked $40 million to help Iraq's political parties mobilize -- and, subtly, to ... |
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Tuesday, 21 September 2004 |
 Washington Times: Iran's Assembly of Experts, the body of powerful Muslim clerics that chooses the country's supreme leader, opened its 12th session Sunday calling for an Islamic republic in Iraq.
In his opening speech, the assembly's speaker, Ayatollah Ali Meshkini, urged Iraqi leaders to unite to expel foreign troops in Iraq and establish a government based on the principles of Islam similar to the one in Iran ... |
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Monday, 20 September 2004 |
 Iran Focus: Tehran, Sep. 19 – The Assembly of Experts, an exclusive body of Muslim clerics who appoint the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic, opened its twelfth session today amid heightened regional and international tensions
over Iran’s nuclear project and its meddling in Iraq. |
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Monday, 20 September 2004 |
 Sunday Times: British intelligence has identified a group of Iranian “warlords” as the main source of funding and training for the Shi’ite insurgency in southern Iraq.
A joint operation in Iraq between army intelligence field agents and MI6 has revealed that a cell within the Iranian
Revolutionary Guard is intent on bringing bloodshed to Iraq. |
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Monday, 20 September 2004 |
 New York Times: Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld have raised sharp complaints in recent days that Iran is providing support for the insurgency in Iraq, expressing concerns over what they say are Iran's attempt to shape Iraq's future. |
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Saturday, 18 September 2004 |
 New York Times: Secretary of State Colin Powell has said that Iran is "providing support" for the insurgency in Iraq but that the extent of its influence over insurgent forces is not clear.
Most of the insurgency, he said, was "self-generating" and drew support from indigenous sources in Iraq. |
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Thursday, 16 September 2004 |
 AP: Iran condemned the killing of one of its civil servants in Iraq and demanded that the Iraqi government punish those responsible, state television reported on Wednesday.
Unidentified assailants killed Labib Mohammadi of Iran's Hajj and Pilgrimage Organization near the central Iraqi city of Karbala, state television said in a report carried on its Web site. It did not say when Mohammadi was killed or give further details.
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Tuesday, 14 September 2004 |
 USA TODAY: Seventeen months after U.S. forces toppled Saddam Hussein, instability in Iraq is creating opportunities for its mainly Shiite Muslim neighbor, Iran.
"The real long-term geopolitical winner of the 'War on Terror' could be Iran," concludes a new report by the Royal Institute of International Affairs, Britain's most respected foreign-policy research organization. |
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Wednesday, 08 September 2004 |
 THE WASHINGTON TIMES: Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld charged yesterday that Iran is fueling the deadly insurgency in Iraq with money and fighters.
But, in an interview with editors and reporters of The Washington Times, Mr. Rumsfeld acknowledged that the United States has limited options because other nations are "not willing" to join in pressuring Iran, which has shown behavior that Mr. Rumsfeld said is "not part of the civilized world." |
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Tuesday, 07 September 2004 |
 Iran Focus: Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) and the Islamic Propaganda Agency have been waging an extensive campaign in recent days to undermine the position of senior Iraqi Shiite clerics who have been reluctant to tow Tehran’s line in Iraq, targeting in particular Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani. |
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Tuesday, 07 September 2004 |
 Iran Focus: The editor of the influential state-owned daily, Kayhan, made a clear link between the current turmoil in Iraq and the developments on the internal political scene in Iran, noting that mounting problems facing the U.S. in Iraq have silenced those who were hoping for “regime change” in Iran. |
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Tuesday, 07 September 2004 |
 Iran Focus: The commander of Revolutionary Guards in the southern province of Kerman told thousands of his troops and members of the para-military Bassij that U.S. forces were not capable of defeating Moqtada Sadr’s forces in Iraq and were massacring Shiite children in the south. |
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Tuesday, 07 September 2004 |
 Iran Focus: Some 100 Iranians holding fake Afghan identity cards were arrested on August 8 in Diyala Province, bordering Iran, according to sources in the area. They crossed the border illegally and entered Iraqi territory and initial investigations showed they had ties with the Iranian regime’s security services. |
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Tuesday, 07 September 2004 |
 Iran Focus: A state-owned Iranian daily, Kayhan, described the United States in Iraq “hostage of the Islamic Republic of Iran.”
“It is now becoming increasingly clear that the U.S. in Iraq is the hostage of the Islamic Republic of Iran” the daily wrote in its lead article.
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Monday, 06 September 2004 |
 Iran Focus: In a meeting of top judiciary officials, Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi, head of the judiciary, praised the “emergence of the Iraqi people’s intifada, which will paralyse the Americans.”
Born and bred in Iraq, Shahroudi came to Iran for the first time after the 1979 revolution. |
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Monday, 06 September 2004 |
 Iran Focus: Iraqi police have arrested 200 Iranians and Afghans who were fighting U.S. and Iraqi forces in Najaf, an Iraqi minister announced.
Provincial Affairs Minister Wa'il Abd al-Latif made the announcement to local journalists in Baghdad. |
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Monday, 06 September 2004 |
 Official daily urges “worldwide attacks on U.S. interests”
Iran Focus: Tehran, Aug 26 – Alarmed by the return of Grand Ayatollah Sistani to Najaf and the improving prospects of restoring peace in the holy Shiite city, Iran’s clerical rulers are taking measures to undermine any truce and create new trouble for the Coalition and the Iraqi government.
In a strongly-worded speech yesterday, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned the United States that it would face "decades of hatred" from the Islamic world after the fighting in Najaf. |
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Monday, 06 September 2004 |
 Iran Focus: Iraq’s interim Deputy Prime Minister Barham Saleh is expected to visit Iran Saturday following a barrage of criticisms directed at the Tehran regime from Iraq’s most senior government officials. |
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Monday, 06 September 2004 |
 Iran Focus: In a meeting with university lecturers and students, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei urged young people in Iraq to continue their struggle against U.S. forces in Najaf.
He said that Iran is a "source of hope for the world due to its confrontational position" towards the United States. Khamenei urged Iraqis to follow Iran’s example of achieving an Islamic Republic. |
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Monday, 06 September 2004 |
 Reuters - Armed men beat up an Iranian state television camera crew in Iraq and took their equipment, Iranian state radio reported on Sunday, as relations sour between the neighbours who fought a bitter 1980-88 war.
It was unclear whether the assailants belonged to a particular faction, but Iranian state radio reported their equipment had been "confiscated" rather than stolen. |
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Monday, 06 September 2004 |
 UPI: Iraqi government officials said Sunday they have rejected an Iranian offer to rebuild destroyed sections of Shiite shrines in Najaf and Karbala.
Shiite Property Department Spokesman Salah Abdul Razzaq said the government refused the offer to protest Iran's role in recent clashes in Najaf. |
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Monday, 06 September 2004 |
 AFP: BAQUBA, Iraq, Sept 5 - Iraqi and US officials say they are close to defeating the deadly foreign fighter networks, Iranian spies and Iraqi resistance that make up the backbone of the insurgency in the eastern province of Diyala. |
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Saturday, 04 September 2004 |
 Newsweek - Sep. 6: Six months ago, Abu Sajjad was rolling in cash. His cloth shop is right in front of the Imam Ali shrine, a great location to attract pilgrims visiting this holiest of Shiite sanctuaries. The faithful who flocked into Najaf from Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan bought hundreds of yards of fabric to take home as souvenirs. Now Abu Sajjad looks at his storefront, riddled with bullets and shrapnel, and shakes his head. "Why did this happen?" he asks. |
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Thursday, 26 August 2004 |
 Washintgon Times: Media coverage of Iraqi politics paints a warped picture of the reality inside the country. A serious misunderstanding of Iraq is developing in the West. Muqtada al-Sadr is not a populist; the Najaf standoff has little to do with Iraqi popular will and everything to do with Iranian political muscle flexing. |
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Wednesday, 25 August 2004 |
Xinhuanet: Iraqi border and customs police foiled an attempt to smuggle weapon production lines to Iran in eastern Iraq of Diyala, the Al Sabah Al Jadid newspaper reported Tuesday.
The productions lines, remains of the former Iraqi institution of military industry, were disassembled and hidden under heaps of junk in six 16-ton-cargo cars. |
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Wednesday, 25 August 2004 |
 AFP: Iraq's interim government on Tuesday refused an Iranian proposal to hold an emergency regional summit to discuss Najaf, where US-led Iraqi troops have led a fierce assault against Shiite Muslim militiamen. |
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Wednesday, 18 August 2004 |
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The Guardian: Security officials in Baghdad were last night urgently investigating the background of 30 Iranians who were caught fighting for a rebel Shia cleric in Iraq, amid mounting concern over the involvement of the Tehran regime in the uprising. |
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Tuesday, 17 August 2004 |
 UPI: A senior Iraqi government official played videotapes for reporters showing seized boxes of weapons intended for Moqtada Sadr's Mahdi Army. Wael Abdel Latif, minister for the provinces in Iraq's interim administration, said the weapons came from Iran.
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Tuesday, 17 August 2004 |
 USA TODAY: Iran's increasing support for insurgent Shiites in Iraq is giving the fighting in Najaf the appearance of a proxy war between Iran and the United States, Jordan and Saudi Arabia. |
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Monday, 16 August 2004 |
 AFP: Large quantities of powdered milk donated by international aid agencies to Iraq are being stolen and smuggled across the border to Iran for sale at bargain prices. |
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