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islamirama
07-29-2007, 01:17 AM
Iran still meddling in Iraq, U.S. says
Tehran disputes the allegation, made during talks, of an increase in militia activity that can be linked to its support.
By Alexandra Zavis, Times Staff Writer
July 25, 2007

BAGHDAD — U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker chided his Iranian counterpart at a rare and heated meeting Tuesday, saying Tehran has increasingly meddled in Iraq since the pair's first encounter this year.

But he said the United States, Iran and Iraq agreed to set up a security committee to devise ways to help curb the ongoing violence in Iraq.

Iraqi officials heralded the move as the first concrete step to emerge from the talks, which began May 28, ending a nearly 30-year diplomatic freeze between the U.S. and Iran. But Crocker said the results that count will be the ones on the ground.

"The fact is, as we made very clear in today's talks, that over the roughly two months we have actually seen militia-related activities that can be attributed to Iranian support go up and not down," Crocker said at a news briefing after the meeting.

A spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry countered that "false accusations and propaganda" would not help the negotiations.

"It is crystal clear that the main objective behind repetition of such baseless accusations against Iran is to pursue the U.S. propaganda fuss and psychological warfare against the country," Mohammed Ali Hosseini told reporters in Iran.

The meeting came on a day when a suicide bomber in a tow truck killed at least 25 people and injured scores more in Hillah, a city about 60 miles south of Baghdad. They were among at least 55 people killed or found slain in bomb blasts, mortar fire and shootings across Iraq.

The session took place amid continuing tension between Washington and Tehran over Iran's nuclear program and detainees held by both countries. Such issues, however, were not discussed: Only the question of Iraq's security was on the table.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari termed the daylong talks, which he chaired at Prime Minister Nouri Maliki's office in the fortified Green Zone, as "very challenging."

Crocker repeated U.S. accusations that Iran is providing weapons, training and other support to Shiite and Sunni Muslim militants fighting in Iraq, including sophisticated bombs able to penetrate heavily armored vehicles. U.S. officials also say many of the rockets aimed at the Green Zone, home to the U.S. Embassy and Iraqi government offices, come from Iran.

"I was as clear as I could be with the Iranians that this effort, this discussion, has to be measured in results, not in principles or promises, and that thus far the results on the ground are not encouraging," Crocker said.

Iran denies the charges and says it is the United States ' presence in Iraq since it led an invasion here in 2003 that is fueling the violence. But Iranian Ambassador Hassan Kazemi-Qomi told Crocker that his government would be willing to discuss U.S. concerns within the forum of a committee of security experts, a proposal he put forward at their first meeting in May.

Crocker, who was reticent about the idea then, said Tuesday that he hoped to see such a mechanism set up as soon as possible. Zebari said the three sides would meet again within days to work out details about the nature and composition of the committee , which he said would focus on ways to rein in violent militias, fight the group Al Qaeda in Iraq and secure the nation's border with Iran .

Kazemi-Qomi told reporters that he demanded the release of five Iranians detained by the United States in Iraq , a move supported by Zebari, who said it would help ease relations. U.S. officials say the men are agents with Iran's elite Quds Force, but Tehran says they are diplomats. Tehran is holding four Iranian Americans, accusing them of trying to undermine the Iranian regime, charges denied by Washington .

Iraqi officials have underscored that they do not want their country to become the battleground for a proxy war between the United States and Iran . Maliki told both sides in opening remarks that he hoped the meeting Tuesday would help create "a new regional climate based on cooperation in fighting the terrorism that threatens us all," according to a statement from his office.

The meeting comes at a time when U.S. and Iraqi officials are under intense pressure to show they are making progress resolving the ethnic, religious and political divisions that fuel the bloodshed here. Lawmakers are headed into a parliamentary recess at the end of the month with no sign that they will reach agreement on legislation that seeks to address these divides.

Parliament on Tuesday approved a bill that would open the door to private investment in the state-run oil sector by allowing the establishment of private refineries, provided at least 70% of the workforce was Iraqi . But legislators have yet to consider a separate law governing the distribution of Iraq's massive oil wealth.

The suicide bomber in Hillah pulled up between two minibuses packed with passengers in a busy commercial district, police at the scene said. The blast collapsed a ceiling inside a nearby maternity hospital, ripped through shops and torched more than a dozen vehicles. Bodies could be seen inside three charred minibuses.

An ice cream vendor, who gave his name only as Jwad, was eating breakfast at a restaurant when the bomb exploded across the street.

"For a while, I was in a shock and did not know where to look to focus on events," he said. "I smelled a very bad smell of burning flesh and gunpowder. People were running past me away from the explosion site."

Jwad rushed to help evacuate the wounded, including a woman stripped in the blast. Survivors covered her with their own clothing, he said.

The mostly Shiite city has been the target of repeated attacks blamed on Sunni Arab militants. Residents vented their anger on U.S. forces and Maliki's government, accusing them of negligence.

At least 18 people were found shot execution-style in Baghdad , police said, apparent victims of sectarian killing.

In other developments, Abdelaziz Hakim, the leader of one of the two largest Shiite blocs in parliament, returned to Iraq on Tuesday after seeking treatment for lung cancer in Iran.

Jinan Jasim Ubaidi, a lawmaker from Hakim's renamed Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, said the cleric appeared in good health and planned to resume his political responsibilities.

--
zavis@latimes.com

Times staff writer Saif Hameed in
Baghdad and special correspondents in Baghdad, Basra , Hillah, Kirkuk and Tehran contributed to this report.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationwo...eadlines-world

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Assalaamu 3alaikum wa rahmatullaah wa Barakaatuh, Iran meddling in Iraq!

If Iran is meddling in Iraq, what is the U.S. doing there? Strange talk coming from a country whose armed forces crossed some 7,029 miles (11,312 km), bombed, destroyed then invaded sovereign Iraq and continues to brutally occupy it until today! Or, has the U.S. been recognized as the owner and ruler of Iraq?

What the U.S. calls violence in Iraq is resistance to its occupation which they are trying to enlist Iran to help them fight. Imagine Iran fighting America's war against Iraqi resistance! The real senseless violence comes from American troops and paid mercenaries (Contractors) as well as Israeli agents.

All the talk about suicide bombers is just a ploy to cover up their tracks and point the finger to Iraqi resistance, to saw division and pit Iraqis against each other. Is it coincidence that almost all so-called suicide bombings take place in Shia3ah cities and neighborhoods? I believe the U.S. wants to rouse up the majority Shia3ah population against the Sunni resistance, appear to care for the wellbeing of the Shia3ah population and to prepare for the division of Iraq.

Instead of denying its support for the resistance in Iraq, Iran should confirm its right and obligation to help its neighbors defend themselves against foreign occupation, while also condemning American occupation and the presence of American naval armada in the Gulf and military bases in Bahrain, Qatar and Kuwait . Too bad, it seems that Iran has fell in the trap setup for it by the U.S. and is getting itself entangled in the Western-Zionist web of conspiracies. Iran must very loudly and clearly denounce American military presence in the area as a grave threat to its security and the security of the region.

I do not deny that Iran has its own agenda and designs in Iraq, and may even be involved in some of the violence against the Sunni population, however, Iran is also a neighbor and has interests in Iraq while the U.S. has no business being in the Area altogether. Any criticism or complaints against Iran 's meddling in Iraq cannot be accepted from any Western source or countries foreign to the Middle East.

Bahjat

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US vs Iraq - Another 'Highway Of Death' Slaughter

"The US armed forces bombed one end of the main highway from Kuwait city to Basra , sealing it off. They bombed the other end of the highway and sealed it off. They positioned mechanized artillery units on the hills overlooking it. And then, from the air and from the land they simply massacred every living thing on the road. Fighter bombers, helicopter gun-ships, and armored battalions poured merciless firepower on traffic jams backed up for as much as twenty miles. When the traffic became grid locked, the B-52s were sent in for carpet bombing." Our forces did not wait for the fleeing people to surrender, they did not surround them and force them to surrender, they just exterminated them. Americans never heard about the "Highway of Death," they just paid for it, a slaughter that, in Barnes' words "ranks among the great atrocities of modern warfare."


http://www.rense.com/general33/vs.htm




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