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U.S. blames Iran, Syria for Iraq violence
Reuters ^ | Tue Oct 24, 2006 11:01am ET162 | Paul Holmes

Posted on 10/24/2006 8:28:26 AM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - America's civilian and military leaders in Iraq linked Iran and Syria with al Qaeda on Tuesday as forces trying to tear the country apart and prevent the United States from establishing a stable democracy.

The comments from ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad and General George Casey were among the strongest U.S. officials have leveled against Iraq's two neighbors over alleged support for armed groups behind much of the bloodshed.

Khalilzad depicted the struggle to build a united, democratic Iraq as "the defining challenge of our era" and said it would shape the future of the Middle East and global security.

"Those forces that constitute the extremist camp including not only al Qaeda but Iran and Syria are at work to keep us and the Iraqis from succeeding," Khalilzad told a rare joint news conference with Casey, two weeks before U.S. Congressional elections.

"They fear Iraq's success. They want to undermine our resolve by imposing costs on us in terms of prolonging the conflict, imposing casualties and creating the perception that Iraq cannot be stabilized," Khalilzad said.

Al Qaeda and Iraq's "foreign rivals" were trying to tear the Iraqi people apart along sectarian lines, Khalilzad said, naming Iran and Syria as countries that "cynically support rival groups involved in the violence".

Iran, which has close religious ties to Iraq's majority Shi'ite population, and Syria, largely Sunni Muslim, both deny supporting armed groups in Iraq.

"PROMISES OF HELP"

Khalilzad called the news conference to answer mounting questions in the United States about U.S. strategy in Iraq ahead of elections on November 7 that opinion polls suggest could cost President George W. Bush's Republicans control of Congress.

Khalilzad said the United States had asked Arab states such as Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan to encourage Sunni insurgent groups to end the violence and join the political process.

"These countries have promised to be helpful," he said.

Casey called both Syria and Iran "decidedly unhelpful".

Violence in Iraq has spiraled this year in a frenzy of sectarian killings that Casey and Khalilzad blamed on al Qaeda, insurgents, rival militias and death squads.

Khalilzad said Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, a Shi'ite, had told him that the radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr supported government efforts to disband party militias.

"We will see what happens," he added.

Sadr controls the powerful Mehdi Army militia, which Sunni leaders and U.S. officials blame for some of the worst atrocities in the conflict. It has also been involved in fighting among Shi'ites in the southern town of Amara.

Sadr disowns violence in his name but is fiercely opposed to the U.S. occupation and has been seen this year as among the closest of the Iraqi Shi'ite leaders to the Iranian leadership.

Khalilzad and Casey last appeared together at a news conference in Baghdad on June 8 following the killing of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq. Casey said the Zarqawi group had been weakened but remained lethal.

October is already the deadliest month for U.S. forces in Iraq since last November, with 88 killed so far. Casey said 300 Iraqi soldiers and police had also been killed during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, which is now ending.


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Front Page News; News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: iran; iraq; syria
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To: Matchett-PI
From the link just above:

He added that, "One of our proposals is to form a national salvation government away from sectarian quotas and to depend on a strong statesman like Iyad Allawi, who, although he is Shia and I am a Sunni, showed he is non-sectarian. The man is acceptable to the majority of the resistance factions, the Baathist, the secularists, the nationalists, and the military. We believe that he has a lot of keys for a solution to the crisis. We hear that the Iraqi street wants the return of Allawi to save the country from this tragic situation, especially since he resisted the presence of militias during his tenure, which did not witness what is happening today despite the fact that he did not form his government as he wished. This does not mean that the current government has no competent ministers. These, however, cannot offer anything in light of the current situation. And then [the other proposal is] to prepare for democratic elections under the UN supervision."

21 posted on 10/24/2006 9:35:24 AM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach (History is soon Forgotten,)
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To: Matchett-PI

Seems like Tenet and Powell should get more of the blame in the MSM,....now why don't they?


22 posted on 10/24/2006 9:43:19 AM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach (History is soon Forgotten,)
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Iran and Syria are nothing more than instigators- the real problem is sectarian violence- plain and simple. Even if we get Syria and Iran to back down, the violence will still be there in Iraq. Malaki HAS to get serious about ending the violence. The government that they have now is NOT working- it HAS to be revamped- restructured or else the violence will never end. Malaki knows that restructuring the government will mean increased violence for awhile, and he hasn't got the courage to do what needs to be done, and our soldeiers are suffering for it.

Read more at sacredscoop.com ...

23 posted on 10/24/2006 9:46:06 AM PDT by CottShop (http://sacredscoop.com)
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach

Quit pointing a finger and kick some a$$ instead.


24 posted on 10/24/2006 9:50:06 AM PDT by SMM48
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach

This is the disastrous legacy of Jimmy Carter's idiotic decision to allow Iran to be taken over by the brutal mullacracy. Our job in Iraq would be much easier if Iran was still a US ally. Carter's catastrophic mistake in Iran is now causing enormous problems for America and those problems will not be fully solved until the current Iranian regime is replaced with a new government that is friendly towards America.


25 posted on 10/24/2006 9:50:49 AM PDT by defenderSD (Blogging from a secure, undisclosed location in the southwestern United States.)
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To: SMM48

That may happen sooner than anyone thinks. If the Iranian regime continues with nuclear weapons develoment, it may get hammered and severly weakened sometime next year, possibly before summer.


26 posted on 10/24/2006 9:52:34 AM PDT by defenderSD (Blogging from a secure, undisclosed location in the southwestern United States.)
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach
Well, DUH!

Why haven't they been invaded already? Shoulda done that as soon as we finished rounding up and shooting the senior members of the Ba'ath party.
Oh, we didn't do that either. Now they, in addition to the b@st@rds from Syria and Iran, hire folks to bomb our troops.
Oh, well.
27 posted on 10/24/2006 9:53:38 AM PDT by Little Ray (If you want to be a martyr, we want to martyr you.)
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To: Little Ray

Syria has some very nasty chemical weapons (rumored to have been used with brutal impact in the Sudan) which make an invasion of Syria much too difficult. We don't want to send the entire Middle East into turmoil at the same time, but we have to start dealing with these hostile regimes one at a time. They are destabilizing Iraq and adding enormously to the cost for us in blood and treasure. Thanks again, Jimmah Carter, you dolt.


28 posted on 10/24/2006 10:13:52 AM PDT by defenderSD (Blogging from a secure, undisclosed location in the southwestern United States.)
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach

so when do we start bombing the border towns in syria and iran used as the jumping off points?

(crickets chirping...)

thought so.

But hey, we are going to replace the "stay the course" slogan with something else.


29 posted on 10/24/2006 10:16:22 AM PDT by oceanview
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach

Yeah - "Why?", is right.


30 posted on 10/24/2006 10:19:48 AM PDT by Matchett-PI (To have no voice in the Party that always sides with America's enemies is a badge of honor.)
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To: defenderSD
Ya know, we don't have to destabilize the entire ME. We just need to make flaming ruins out of a few specific parts of it. That is a lesson the rest of ME will understand and respect.
We should probably start by destroying Iran's oil producing capacity, since that is how they fund their misbehavior. Oil prices be d@mned; I'll pay $3 per gallon to put an end to the Ayatollahs and their hand puppet.
31 posted on 10/24/2006 10:24:31 AM PDT by Little Ray (If you want to be a martyr, we want to martyr you.)
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach

Why would Reuters publish this? Are they slipping? Was there a revolution in the newsroom?


32 posted on 10/24/2006 10:27:21 AM PDT by RightWhale (Repeal the law of the excluded middle)
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach
Okay, so Iran and Syria are the, aiders, abettors,funders, ammo and sanctuary providers in this battle for Iraq, as were the Chinese and Russians in the battle for Korea and Vietnam? The solution to the problem is as clear now to rational people as it was in those previous conflicts.

The allies of our enemy is our enemy too. Until we take them out we cannot win the battle at hand.

To defeat an enemy, all friends of that enemy must likewise be defeated. It'll be bloody, it will be scary, it will be expensive as hell, it will require sacrifice at home and abroad. The alternative is to run up the white flag and unconditionally surrender and accept every condition imposed by the enemy.

Patric Henry said it best and anyone today who says otherwise is a traitor.
33 posted on 10/24/2006 10:34:40 AM PDT by F.J. Mitchell ( I predict a victory for Republicans that will make Dims remember 1994 as a very good year for them.)
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To: RightWhale

Almost looks like some very high level people in Europe and Washington asked them to publish this article. Iran is a big problem for Europe and Iraq needs to be stabilized before Europe and the US deal with Iran and its nuclear weapons program.


34 posted on 10/24/2006 10:38:01 AM PDT by defenderSD (Blogging from a secure, undisclosed location in the southwestern United States.)
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach
Sadr controls the powerful Mehdi Army militia
...both of which should be annihilated.
35 posted on 10/24/2006 10:47:49 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (Dhimmicrati delenda est! https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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To: Earthdweller

Speculation is that Mookie fired up his ignorant clans and can't even stop them from exacting revenge on Sunnis even if it is imprecise.

Mookie's guys also just hit out on the rival Shite group, the Badr boyz.

So now you have the beginnings of all out civil unrest as Mookie tries to position himself to seize power completely. This while he is allied and getting money and arms from Iran.

Unless there is an RX for this punk, I don't see things getting better, at all.


36 posted on 10/24/2006 10:56:06 AM PDT by romanesq
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach
This has been going on almost since the beginning. Add to that the trouble Syria and Iran caused in Lebanon for the Lebanese and the Israelis and you've got a lot of reasons for the American public to be demanding action against these two terror-supporting states.
37 posted on 10/24/2006 11:15:10 AM PDT by elhombrelibre (Global Warming Fears will do for the world what over population fears did for Europe.)
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach
They are working in this direction by all indications, as some southern supply depots have been made operational at this point. Most of the Border Check point facilities are now in place. And of course more and more units are becoming able to do operations on their own with their own Intel, with only marginal or no US air and ground support.
I believe they still have a long way to go to become fully class 1 as a whole army. For whatever reasons we have not heard much about more divisional levels achieving class 2 or 1 position in the five number system.
As some of us have noted over a period of time it appears their armored divison really has to be beefed up. Perhaps a lot of things are quietly taking place, that will give them they fire power they really need in case they are to take out the two large militias in independent actions.
38 posted on 10/24/2006 11:47:08 AM PDT by Marine_Uncle (Honor must be earned)
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach

MP demands answers over Iran threat

19 October 2006 - AN MP has urged the government to come clean over the threat faced to British troops by Iranian paramilitaries in Iraq. Beckenham MP Jacqui Lait spoke out after the Ministry of Defence claimed it had no knowledge of how many Iranians had been arrested in Basra since the end of Saddam Hussein's regime. Blasting the MoD's stance as "disingenuous", she said: "What I am hearing on the ground is that quite a number of Iranians are very active in the area. "I would have thought it would be a matter of some note for people who are concerned about international relations, and I would expect those people who need to know probably do know."

Acting on information from sources inside Iraq, Ms Lait tabled a parliamentary question asking how many Iranians had been arrested in the region occupied by British troops in southern Iraq. Defence minister Des Browne replied on October 9 that just one Iranian national had been detained by British forces, in 2003, and had been subsequently released. However, he added that the MoD "do not hold records on individuals arrested by the Iraqi Police Service", leading to criticism from the Beckenham MP.

Ms Lait said: "It is disingenuous. I, like most MPs, have contacts among people out in Iraq and they tell you things." The Ministry of Defence described information linking Iran to the worsening security situation in Iraq as "subjective and unsubstantiated" and declined to comment on Ms Lait's comments. Iraq and Iran formed a working group on Monday to build security and intelliegence ties, the Iraqi government announced on Sunday, despite concerns over Tehran's role in the country. The US has accused Iran of "fuelling the deadly violence sweeping Iraq" and accused the country of smuggling weapons to Iraqi militias.

patrick.clift@archant.co.uk

HUMINT: The situation around Basra is grim - Iran is deeply involved there. Clearly there are number of dimensions to the fight across the entire country. IMO it's too convoluted to call a civil war. Some are calling for a strong man to bring things under control - the country obviously needs a strong democratic government with strong leadership. What country doesn't need quality leadership who understand the mechanics of progress and liberty? We could use more of it here in the US.

39 posted on 10/24/2006 12:19:45 PM PDT by humint (...err the least and endure! --- VDH)
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach
U.S. should attack Iran with the help of Israel. Then we might be close to having a "War" with someone. Iraq is just one "Battle" by the way we've lost roughly one battalion in 5 years (3000), not to diminish the precious lives lost since 2001. (there are roughly 42,000 traffic fatalities in one year)
40 posted on 10/24/2006 1:37:21 PM PDT by PEACE ENFORCER
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