[FREE IRAN Project] In The Spirit Of Cyrus The Great

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Iran Leader Sees U.S. 'Vulnerable' in Iraq

April 12, 2004
WorldNetDaily
WorldNetDaily.com

http://www.iranvajahan.net/cgi-bin/news.pl?l=en&y=2004&m=04&d=12&a=1

WASHINGTON – Providing yet more evidence that Iran is actively supporting the Shiite guerrilla forces battling U.S.-led coalition, former Iranian President Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani said the American military forces are vulnerable, describing them as a "wounded monster," and suggesting defeat would provide a "valuable lesson" for the West.

Rafsanjani, chairman of the powerful Expediency Council in Iran, says America's vulnerability in Iraq makes Iran stronger.

During Friday prayers, broadcast live by Iranian radio, Rafsanjani said deep relations between the people of Iran and the people of Iraq are causing problems for America.

"America had entered the region in order to set up a base right outside our borders, but such a base will no longer materialize," he said. "We have small accounts with the Americans which we must settle one day and bring the issue to a close."

Rafsanjani praised Moqtada Al-Sadr's "heroic" Mahdi militia.

"Contrary to those terrorist groups in Iraq, there are also strong bodies which contribute to the security of that nation," Rafsanjani said. "Among them is the Mahdi Army, comprising many enthusiastic and heroic young people who were unhappy both with Saddam and the Americans, as well as other issues ... ."

Rafsanjani's candid speech confirms earlier reports in WorldNetDaily showing Iran is deeply involved in the Iraqi uprising and has been planning it for more than a year.

On Tuesday, the London Arabic daily Al-Hayat noted in the previous two days there had been "repeated talk in the Governing Council of Iraq about the major Iranian role in the events that took place in the Iraqi Shiite cities," according to the Washington, D.C.-based Middle East Media Research Institute, or MEMRI.

"The direct Iranian presence in the Shiite areas of Iraq in the political, security, and economic affairs can not be ignored anymore," the paper said.

As WorldNetDaily reported, last April, an Iranian cleric, Kadhem al-Husseini al-Haeri, issued a religious edict distributed to Shiite mullahs in Iraq, calling on them "to seize the first possible opportunity to fill the power vacuum in the administration of Iraqi cities."

The edict, or fatwa, issued April 8, 2003, showed that Shiite clerics in Iraq are receiving significant direction from Iran. The edict said Shiite leaders have to "seize as many positions as possible to impose a fait accompli for any coming government."

Also last April, WorldNetDaily reported Iran had armed and trained some 40,000 Shiite Iraqi fighters – most former prisoners of war captured during the Iran-Iraq war – and sent them to Iraq to foment an Islamic revolution.

Rafsanjani said the Americans cannot bring Iraq under control for several reasons:



They cannot control the borders;

They cannot restore security;

They cannot re-build the country.


In destroying the Baathists, Rafsanajni said, the coalition forces also destroyed "the police, the army, the secret police and anything else that had something to do with security and the ruling system. They sacked them all. I said earlier that administering them was a problem and an obstacle in itself. But was there any other alternative? This is an important issue and proves that the Americans had no plan. The accusation against them that they lacked planning is therefore true."

"After sacking everybody, they were left totally empty-handed. Suddenly there were no police guards in streets, rural areas, along access roads and in border regions," he said, characterizing the American approach to the war as "amateurish." "No police could be found anywhere to control affairs. Well, how is it possible to administer and control the public in a war-stricken country where so many unemployed poor people were trying to resolve their own problems?"

Rafsanjani as much as admitted the Iranian border is being used to support the uprising in Iraq.

Calling the border problems a "catastrophe," he said: "Iraq has too many borders, Iran, Turkey, Syria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. And the opposition (groups) can smuggle in whatever they need or wish to take out through all these borders – unless the neighbouring countries do not want this."

Rafsanjani also paid tribute to the Badr Corps, tens of thousands of Iraqis taken prisoner during the war with Iran who were returned to Iraq as Iranian agents – many of them armed.

"The Badr Corps is a very important group the majority of whom were arrested during the war and were kept in Iran as POWs and then they repented, returned, set up groups and are now back in Iraq," he said. "They have become integrated in society and are carrying out civilian tasks. In any case, the Badr Corps is a very huge force which exists there."

Rafsanjani said the Americans "are now in the region as a very effective target. Of course Iran does not wish to get involved in acts of adventurism. We do not intend to become involved in clashes. We do not intend to interfere. We helped in the case of Afghanistan, we helped in the case of Iraq and we are still helping in security and other issues, but America has become vulnerable."

Rafsanjani also paid tribute to President Bush's political opposition in the upcoming presidential election.

"Some of them explicitly accuse him of treachery," Rafsanjani said. "Some say that he is a war criminal and has to face trial. The presidential candidate from the Green Party says that he must face trial as a war criminal because he dragged America into a war without obtaining permit (of the U.N. Security Council) and inflicted so many losses on the country.

He says that America is incurring heavy costs and is losing its prestige. The biggest criticism they raise against Mr Bush is that he undermined credibility of the international organizations by bypassing them. He failed to obtain endorsement for a job that required international approval."

Rafsanjani added that if the U.S. is defeated in Iraq, the Americans would not soon return to the region.




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