US forces on the ground in Iraq collect further evidence of Iranian involvement there
The U.S. military said its troops arrested an Iranian-trained bomb expert affiliated to a Shiite extremist militia in southeast of Baghdad, the U.S. military said on Wednesday.
A U.S. military statement said the troops raided the house of the suspect in the town of Numaniyah, some 180 km near the city of Kut.
The targeted suspect is believed to be a member of Iranian-backed "Special Groups" Shiite militia, the statement said.
Meanwhile, Iran tries to negotiate a security arrangement with Iraq by tellingIraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki that the instability in Iraq is being cause by the US.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki concluded a three-day visit to Iran after meeting Monday with Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who warned that the continued presence of U.S. troops was "the main obstacle on the way to progress and prosperity in Iraq."
The session with Khamenei, Iran's top religious and political authority, served to further highlight the delicate position of the Iraqi government -- caught between the U.S. and Iran, each seeking to pull Iraq out of the other's sphere of influence.
Pretty clearly Iran wants the US out of Iraq. And to my mind the reason is that the US is the only thing standing in the way of Iran subsuming Iraq and basically having a sphere continuous of influence that would include Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon.
Before the Ottoman Empire, Iraq was part of Persia. And the disputes between Persia and the Ottoman's never ceased until the European colonial period began after the end of WWI. The British Mandate of Mesopotamia created Iraq. But that just meant the British inherited the land disputes.
If Iran controll Iraq, Syria and Lebanon, how much land area of the Middle East would that be?
Would it equate to the Persian Empire of old? Well, to do that they would need Afghanistan too.
According to reports published in local Afghan newspapers, including Weesa, Iranian involvement is not limited to unofficial cooperation with militant forces, but in fact includes official efforts to influence the Afghan administration. Some regional experts argue that Iran is using the political tension between Afghanistan and Pakistan in its favor, leveraging the fact that Iran is the only route by which Afghanistan can maintain foreign trade. Afghanistan is becoming increasingly dependent on Iran for its transit trade route as a result of the tense Afghan-Pakistan relationship. Through this route, Afghanistan receives key imports such as electronic equipment, cars and spare parts—much of which originates in Japan. Food, clothing and other essential products are also supplied through Iran. This reality limits Washington's options to pressure Tehran since if Iran blocks its border, the Afghan economy could collapse.
In the meantime, the Iranian government is active in the financial sector as well. According to the Iranian official news agency IRNA, the chambers of commerce of the two countries have recently signed a number of documents, which are expected to make Iran a major player in the Afghan economy. Iran has become one of the largest donors in the reconstruction process in Afghanistan. An Iranian Foreign Ministry official puts the total amount of aid to Afghanistan since 2001 at about $600 million.
The Iranian media is also publishing provocative reports against the U.S. presence in Afghanistan, blaming Washington for not delivering what it promised to the Afghan people. The well-known Iranian newspaper Jamhur-e-Islami published an article on the fifth anniversary of the September 11 attacks questioning the legacy and intentions of the United States in Afghanistan: "The Afghan people do not see any improvement in their lives and welfare as it was promised to them. Moreover, they are forced to bow to the presence of foreigners on their land and suffer the shame of occupation. Now the Afghan people know that America's goal in attacking Afghanistan and occupying it was part of the global plan America pursues for domination of the Middle East."
Once having Afghanistan, it gets to link up with Pakistan which would be the Eastern border of the old Achaemenid Persian Empire.
On the Western side, of course, they would need Israel too. And it is clear that Iran has plans for them.
If Barak Obama wants to sit down with Ahmadinejad and understand him on his own terms, perhaps he will get a history lesson. Granted, the Persian Empire was not an Islamic nation, but so what?
The ambitions of Iran are clear to me given where it is they chose to devote their time, energy and resources.
But will Ahmadinejad simply say to Obama "Yes, our plan is to reestablish the realm as it was under Darius I"?
And if he did, would Senator Obama then understand more than he does now?
Because regardless of my speculation, it is clear right now, today, that Iran is trying to undermine the government's of Iraq, Afghanistan and Lebanon.
What more does he need to know about that?
And more importantly, he needs to tell us what he will do about that.
