Monday, November 29, 2010
Iraqi govt more willing to stop malign Iranian influence
From a cable dated 24 April 2009: "Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps - Quds Force (IRGC-QF) officers are active in Iraq, conducting traditional espionage and supporting violent extremists as well as supporting both legitimate and malign Iranian economic and cultural outreach. Iraqis and their government have demonstrated increasing willingness to push back against malign Iranian influence in the last year. Working with the Iraqis, we have succeeded in stopping some IRGC-QF activity through military operations and diplomatic engagement, while we prevented some IRGC-QF officers from entering Iraq through explicit warnings that we would target them unilaterally. However, under the Security Agreement effective January 1, all operations in Iraq must be conducted in conjunction with Iraqi Security Forces (ISF), and our previous unilateral warnings carry less weight. As Coalition Forces continue the period of responsible drawdown, we will rely increasingly on the GOI to keep the pressure on the IRGC-QF. We intend to support the GOI in these efforts through continued diplomatic engagement, intelligence sharing, and our security partnership of Coalition Forces working by, with, and through the ISF."
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1 comment :
'Brian Burton, a fellow at the Center for a New American Security in Washington, said the cables reflected the reality that Iran and Iraq have historic economic, political and cultural ties that the U.S. will never be able to "zero out."
"The focus should be on mitigating the most harmful elements of Iranian influence, such as attempting to manipulate Iraqi internal affairs or providing assistance to anti-government insurgents, and on fostering deeper relationships between Iraq and the other countries of the region so that Iraq doesn't have to rely on Iran as a sole source of support," he said.'
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