Even Iran's allies in Iraq are concerned that Tehran may be arming anti-government forces, reports Nermeen Al-Mufti in Baghdad Iraqi officials, even those formerly close to Tehran, now admit that Iran is fanning the violence in Iraq. One of them, National Security Adviser Muwaffaq Al-Rabei, last week said that Iran is implicated in the ongoing disturbances, particularly in the southern parts of Iraq. Iraq's Deputy Foreign Minister Lobeid Abbawi voiced a similar view during a preparatory meeting of the International Compact with Iraq, involving Iraq, its neighbours and multilateral institutions, held last week in Kuwait. The Iranian envoy to the conference refused to react to Abbawi's remarks. Later on, Abbawi retracted his statements, but others who were present during the meeting confirmed his statements. Earlier this year, Abbawi criticised Iran for attempting to draw oil from Iraqi fields in the south. Another Iraqi official, General Qassem Atta, spokesman for the Imposing Law Operation, said in a press conference last week that some of the men arrested in Basra confessed that Iran gave them military and financial support. According to Atta, government forces found Iranian-made explosive charges as well as documents linking the insurgents to Iran. Most of the mortar and shells fired last month in Baghdad were Iranian-made, Atta said. Several Americans were killed or wounded in the shelling of the Green Zone last week. US officials maintain that the Jerusalem (Quds) Corps of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard was training and arming extremist militia in Iraq. A worker at the Green Zone said last Sunday that over 10 mortar shells fell in the Green Zone in the past few days, more than usual because a dust storm kept US helicopters from reacting to the attack. Even the Iraqi Alliance List of Abdul-Aziz Al- Hakim (often described as Iran's strongman in Iraq) is now implicitly at least admitting Iranian involvement. It sent a delegation to Tehran to hold talks with Iranian officials about Iraqi security. Alliance List official Sami Al-Askari told Al- Ahram Weekly that the delegation, which is acting independently from the government of Nuri Al-Maliki, intended to discuss with the Iranians certain evidence linking Tehran with weapons used by Iraqi militia. The delegation is composed of Khaled Al-Atiya, deputy parliamentary speaker; Ali Al-Adib, deputy for Al-Daawa Party; and Hadi Al-Amiri, chief of the Badr Organisation. Ali Al-Dabbagh, spokesman for the Iraqi government, said the prime minister ordered an investigation into the Iranian involvement in violence. A spokesman for the Sadr current said his group doesn't want the Iraqi Alliance List to mediate in the current conflict between the Sadr current and the government. Salah Al-Obeidi described the list's delegation to Iran as "an Iranian delegation par excellence", noting that Ali Al- Adib holds an Iranian passport and that Hadi Al- Amiri was a general in the Iranian army. US Defense Secretary Robert Gates welcomed the delegation's mission, describing it as an important step. The Iraqi delegation, Gates said, would ask the Iranians whether they wanted to work with the Iraqi government, or against it. According to US Commander in Iraq David Petraeus, large quantities of Iranian-made weapons have been found in Iraq. Following a meeting with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Petraeus said that the US and Iraqi authorities found more than 1,000 mortar and artillery shells, hundreds of rocket shells, and dozens of armour- piercing rockets. Meanwhile, clashes between the Mahdi Army and government forces continue in Sadr City, the Baghdad stronghold of the Sadr current. Since Sadr City came under siege about a month ago, up to 1,000 people have been killed and at least as many wounded, including women and children. Sheikh Ghaleb Al-Saedi told me that the neighbourhood, home to three million people, is now short of food and medicine. Prime Minister Al-Maliki promised to end the military campaign, demanding that the militia hand over their medium- and heavy-calibre weapons, stop interfering in the work of government departments, stop obstructing the work of the police and army, and hand over wanted men. Salah Al-Obeidi, spokesman for the Sadr current, rejected all four conditions. Police in Karbala are circulating photos of 50 men wanted for "crimes against humanity", saying that they left Sadr City and were heading to Karbala. However, Iraqi official sources told the newspaper Al-Zaman that the men in question were still in Sadr City under the "protection of the Mahdi Army". Negotiations have started between the government and the Sadr current to end the siege of Sadr City. Meanwhile, Fawzi Akram, parliamentarian for the Sadr current, told the Weeklythat more than 50 parliamentarians of various parties have gone to Sadr City to demand that the siege be lifted. The parliamentarians are demanding a stop to military operations and collective punishment, while calling on the government to end its campaign, which has led to the death of many innocent civilians, including women and children. It is all quite ironic considering that Al-Maliki came to power with support from the Sadr current, notes Raad Al-Hodeithi, a prominent expert in Iraqi affairs. "Relations between the Sadr current and Al-Maliki used to be so close that the prime minister refused in the past to arrest the same people he is now hunting down, the people who committed crimes against humanity, fomented sectarian strife, and even used to broadcast films showing their acts of torture and murder on the Internet." When US forces surrounded Sadr City after the rise of sectarian violence in Baghdad last year, the prime minister asked the Americans to end the siege and refrain from attacking the city. But why has he changed his position so dramatically? Al-Hodeithi told the Weekly that Al-Maliki, who hesitated before ordering the attacks on Basra and Sadr City, realised that he may lose his job if he continued to back the Shia insurgents. Trying to balance his sectarian act, Al-Maliki ordered attacks on Shia organisations in Basra, the south, and Baghdad before sending the army against Sunni groups in Mosul. Despite Al-Maliki's change of heart, the Iraqis will not forget that he protected criminals for over a year, Al-Hodeithi said. The prime minister is also responsible for integrating 20,000 militiamen into the ranks of the police and other security services. These men then proceeded to use their official status to commit more crimes. The fate of men abducted by militiamen in official outfits is still unknown, Al- Hodeithi added. Among the missing are members of the Olympic Committee, the Student Exchange Programme and the Baghdad chapter of the Red Cross.
