US
Forces Carry Out Provocative Raid On Iran’s Consulate In Northern
Iraq
By Peter Symonds
13 January 2007
World
Socialist Web
In
the early hours of yesterday morning, US forces raided the Iranian consulate
in the northern Iraqi city of Irbil, detaining at least five employees.
The arrests were clearly aimed at reinforcing the bellicose message
contained in President Bush’s speech, just hours before, that
the American military would “interrupt the flow of support from
Iran and Syria” and “seek out and destroy the networks providing
advanced weaponry and training to our enemies in Iraq.”
Since 2005, US officials
have repeatedly accused Iran and Syria of assisting anti-US insurgents
inside Iraq, but have failed to provide any evidence. In the aftermath
of yesterday’s raid, the American military issued a bland statement
declaring that six people “suspected of being closely tied”
to anti-coalition activities had been detained as part of “routine
security operations”. “[T]he Coalition will continue to
work with the government of Iraq to prevent interference by hostile
actors in Iraq’s internal security affairs,” the statement
added.
The operation, however, was
anything but routine. According to local Kurdish officials, at around
3 a.m. US troops disarmed the guards outside the consulate, broke into
the building and confiscated computers and documents. Military helicopters
circled overhead. While American officials denied that the liaison office
had diplomatic protection, it functioned as a consulate issuing travel
documents, carrying out other consular tasks and was awaiting official
recognition. An Iranian flag flying over the building was hauled down
during the raid.
As for “working with
the government of Iraq”, the US military did not bother to inform
any Iraqi government officials or the regional Kurdish government of
their plans. A cautious statement from Kurdish authorities pointed out
that the consulate was protected by international agreement and warned
the operation “does not help the efforts to bring peace, stability
and security to the rest of Iraq.” The statement added that it
would be “better to inform the Kurdistan government before taking
actions against anybody.”
Associated Press reported
that a second US raid yesterday at Irbil airport nearly led to a shootout
between American troops and local Kurdish security forces. The American
troops attempted to abduct people from inside the airport perimeter,
but were surrounded by Kurdish troops. Iraqi foreign minister Hoshyar
Zebari told the media that “the group has come from nowhere”
and “were unwilling to reveal their identity”. Zebari, a
senior Kurdish politician who has collaborated with the US occupation
from the outset, said that he did not doubt “the integrity of
our friends in the coalition [but] this is a very delicate situation.”
The detention of the Iranian
consular employees provoked an angry response from Tehran, which sent
a letter of protest to the Iraqi government. Iran’s foreign ministry
summoned the Iraqi and Swiss ambassadors and demanded an explanation
for the incident. (Switzerland represents US interests in Iran.) Iranian
spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini told state-run radio that the US action
reflected a “continuation of pressure” on Iran, aimed to
“create tension” between Iraq and its neighbours.
The raid was not only aimed
against the Iranian regime, but also at sending a warning to Iraqi authorities
not to interfere with US strategic plans. The US puppet regime in Baghdad
headed by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki is dominated by Shiite fundamentalist
parties, all of which have longstanding connections to Iran. By detaining
Iranian employees in Irbil, the Bush administration is directly undermining
Iraqi government attempts to establish ties with Iran and making clear
that Iraqi foreign policy will be decided in Washington, not Baghdad.
An exasperated Iraqi spokesman
Ali al-Dabbagh told the media yesterday that his government was seeking
clarification from US and Iranian officials over the detentions. Urging
an improvement in relations between the US and Iraq’s neighbours,
he declared: “Sometimes we [Iraq] pay the price for the tension
in relations between Iran and the United States and Syria.” The
Bush administration has emphatically rejected any negotiations with
Iran and Syria.
Yesterday’s operation
in Irbil is the second such American provocation against Iranians in
Iraq. Last month, the US military detained at least five Iranians in
two raids in Baghdad, claiming they were involved in assisting anti-US
insurgents. In the first on December 20, US soldiers stopped a car and
arrested four people—three Iranians and an Iraqi. Two of the Iranians
were credentialled diplomats who had been invited to visit Iraq by Iraqi
President Jalal Talibani during his trip to Tehran in December. All
four were finally released. At the insistence of the US, the Iraqi government
sent the two diplomats back to Iran.
In a pre-dawn operation on
December 21, US troops raided a house in the compound of Abdul Aziz
al-Hakim, leader of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in
Iraq (SCIRI), which is a major component of Maliki’s ruling coalition.
Two Iranians and eight Iraqis were arrested in the home of Hadi al-Ameri,
the chairman of the Iraqi parliament’s security committee and
head of the Badr Organisation, SCIRI’s armed wing. The US military
claimed that the two Iranians were senior military officials and that
documents, maps, photographs and videos were seized. A rather vague,
unsubstantiated allegation was made that there was evidence connecting
some of those detained “to weapons shipments to armed groups in
Iraq”.
Hakim, who had held talks
in Washington with President Bush just a week before, meekly fell into
line and issued no protest. Neither did Iraqi President Talibani, a
prominent Kurdish leader. But there is no doubt that both were outraged
by the US actions. The willingness of the US to ride roughshod over
those who have been among their loyal allies in Iraq—SCIRI and
the Kurdish parties—is the sharpest indication that, as it prepares
to confront Iran, the Bush administration will brook no opposition from
its puppet regime in Iraq.
In testimony yesterday before
the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, US Secretary of State Condoleezza
Rice reinforced one of the central themes of President Bush’s
speech on Wednesday: that the US would take a more aggressive stance
against Syria and particularly Iran. In his speech, Bush not only declared
the US intention of ending Iranian and Syrian interference in Iraq,
but also announced the dispatch of a second aircraft carrier group to
the Persian Gulf and the deployment of anti-missile systems to America’s
allies in the Gulf States.
Rice was asked point blank
by committee chairman Joe Biden whether the Bush administration was
intending to take military action in Iran and Syria to break up their
alleged “flow of support” to insurgents. While emphasising
that the initial focus would be inside Iraq, she did not exclude strikes
against the two neighboring countries. “Obviously, the president
isn’t going to rule anything out to protect our troops. But the
plan is to take down these networks in Iraq,” she said.
In comments on CBS’s
“Early Show”, Rice amplified further, indicating that the
US was gathering together an anti-Iranian coalition in the Middle East.
Asked if the stage had been set for a confrontation with Iran and Syria,
she replied: “Well obviously, the president’s never going
to take an option off the table. But he believes at this point that
what we’re looking at is the need to solidify the consensus, the
interests of these [Gulf] states that all fear Iran’s moves in
the region, fear the regional aggression of Iran.”
When asked a similar question
on NBC’s “Today Show”, Rice highlighted the December
arrests of Iranian officials in Baghdad, declaring: “Around Christmas
time, we did find a group of Iranians who were engaged in activities
detrimental to our forces. We went, we took them, we then told the Iraqi
government that they needed to be expelled from the country and they
were. The Iranians need to know, and the Syrians need to know, that
the United States is not finding it acceptable and is not going to simply
tolerate their activities to try and harm our forces or to destabilise
Iraq.”
Rice’s reply, which
provided no substantiation of US allegations against Iran, confirms
that the December raids were approved, if not planned, at the top levels
of the White House. Yesterday’s operation in Irbil demonstrates
that there will be more such provocations in the coming months as the
Bush administration attempts to create new pretexts for a reckless,
military adventure against Iran.
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