Row over Iranians strains U.S.-Iraqi relations

[maddezmom]

~snip~

The row over the five tested the Iraqi government's ties with Washington as President Jalal Talabani left for Syria, another foe of President Bush who this week vowed to stop the support for insurgents from both Syria and Iran.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari said the Iranians were not accredited as diplomats but were working with Iraqi approval. Calling for their release, he said the incident underlined the "delicate balance" Baghdad is trying to strike.

"We fully respect the views, policies and strategy of the United States which is the strongest ally to Iraq but the Iraqi government has national interests of its own," Zebari said.

"We can't change the geographical reality that Iran is our neighbor. This is a delicate balance and we are treading a very thin line," he told Reuters in an interview.

~snip~
more:http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070114/wl_nm/iraq_dc

[Kagemusha]

1. So are these Iranians funneling arms to the Mahdi Army or not?

Because if they are, it's apparently with the tacit approval of the Iraqi government, including the Kurdish president.

[Spazito]

2. British Find No Evidence Of Arms Traffic From Iran

ON THE IRAQ-IRAN BORDER -- Since late August, British commandos in the deserts of far southeastern Iraq have been testing one of the most serious charges leveled by the United States against Iran: that Iran is secretly supplying weapons, parts, funding and training for attacks on U.S.-led forces in Iraq.

snip

Other senior British military leaders spoke as explicitly in interviews over the previous two months. Britain, whose forces have had responsibility for security in southeastern Iraq since the war began, has found nothing to support the Americans' contention that Iran is providing weapons and training in Iraq, several senior military officials said.

"I have not myself seen any evidence -- and I don't think any evidence exists -- of government-supported or instigated" armed support on Iran's part in Iraq, British Defense Secretary Des Browne said in an interview in Baghdad in late August.

"It's a question of intelligence versus evidence," Labouchere's commander, Brig. James Everard of Britain's 20th Armored Brigade, said last month at his base in the southern region's capital, Basra. "One hears word of mouth, but one has to see it with one's own eyes. These are serious consequences, aren't they?"

more

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/03/AR2006100301577_pf.html

It seems there is a big question on whether the Iranians are supplying Iraqi militants or not. Given the consistent propensity for the bush cabal and it's "agencies" to lie through their teeth, one would wonder why ANYONE would believe ANYTHING they might say in this area.

[TexasLawyer]

3. Iran Calls On US To Free Iranians Detained In Iraq

Iran Calls On US To Free Iranians Detained In Iraq

Web Editor: Katie Krupnik,
Created: 1/14/2007 8:49:48 AM

Iran is denying a US accusation that five Iranians arrested in northern Iraq last week are supporting the insurgency. The men were detained Thursday during a raid in Irbil.

The US military says the five are connected to an Iranian Revolutionary Guard faction that supplies Iraqi insurgents with money and bombs.

Iran's foreign ministry says the role of the men was diplomatic.

A spokesman says they worked in an office set up in 1992 to facilitate the visit of Kurdish businessmen and medical patients from Iraq to Iran. He says the US should release the men and compensate them.

http://www.wcsh6.com/news/article.aspx?storyid=49799