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US Officials: Decision on Confronting Iran Up to Iraq
The Associated Press
Wednesday 30 April 2008
Washington - Iraqi leaders have been given the latest US evidence of Iranian
support for militias inside Iraq, and Baghdad will decide what to do about it,
two senior Pentagon officials said Wednesday.
Marine Lt. Gen. John Sattler, director of strategy, plans and policy for the
Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki possesses the evidence,
which other officials said contradicts Tehran's stated commitment to stop providing
arms, weapons technology and training to Shiite militias inside Iraq.
"It's in Prime Minister al-Maliki's hands right now, the evidence as to whether
or not he's been lied to - bald-faced lied to - by the Iranian government,"
Sattler told a Pentagon news conference.
"The evidence inside Baghdad has been shared with the Iraqi leadership, and
that's where it stands right now," he added.
The Iraqi leaders are hoping to pressure Iran to stop aiding militias by presenting
Tehran with the latest evidence, another senior defense official said. The official,
speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information,
said it's not clear whether the Iranians have agreed to meet to discuss the
evidence. But the official said the Iraqis want to press the Iranians to stop.
CIA Director Michael Hayden said Wednesday that Iran's policy is to help kill
Americans in Iraq. Hayden made the statement in response to a student question
while speaking at Kansas State University.
"It is my opinion, it is the policy of the Iranian government, approved to
highest level of that government, to facilitate the killing of Americans in
Iraq," Hayden said.
U.S. military officials have said its evidence that Iran is aiding Iraqi militias
includes caches of weapons that have date stamps showing they were produced
in Iran this year. The weapons include mortars, rockets, small arms, roadside
bombs and armor-piercing explosives - known as explosively formed penetrators,
or EFPs - that troops have discovered in recent months, according to another
senior military official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the evidence
has not yet been made public.
According to one official, plans for U.S. officials to publicly present the
evidence of Iranian support for the militias have been delayed to give the Iraqis
time to speak directly to Tehran about the problem.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates and other U.S. government officials have asserted
that Iranian-trained Iraqi Shiite militiamen are carrying out attacks in Baghdad
and elsewhere in Iraq - using weapons supplied by Iran - that are killing
not only Iraqis but U.S. troops as well.
Appearing with Sattler at the Pentagon was the Joint Chiefs' operations chief,
Army Lt. Gen. Carter Ham, who said the Iraqis will play "a leading role" in
determining how to deal with the problem.
"The government of Iran ... made a commitment to stem the flow of fighters
and material from Iran into Iraq," Ham said, adding that U.S. military commanders
in Baghdad "have stated that they're not seeing evidence that that is, in fact,
the case. I think it now is a matter for the government of Iraq."
Asked more directly what the U.S. government intends to do about the Iranian
actions in Iraq, Ham replied, "Clearly the Iraqis have a leading role, but
it is necessarily an international effort to which the United States clearly
is a significant factor in this."
Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said last week
that U.S. officials in Baghdad planned to publicly release evidence of continuing
lethal Iranian assistance to militias inside Iraq. That plan is on hold to give
the Iraqis time to speak directly to Tehran about the problem, one official
said.
Gates said Tuesday that the U.S. is not laying the groundwork for an attack
against Iran.
Addressing the same issue, Sattler said he knows of "no order or stepped-up
effort to plan" for military action against Iran, adding that in his position
as head of planning for the Joint Chiefs, he would know.
The U.S. briefly had two Navy aircraft carriers in the Persian Gulf this week
- a move that Gates said Tuesday could be seen as a "reminder" to Iran. The
Pentagon has routinely said that moving ships to the Gulf is a way of showing
countries there that the U.S. remains committed to the region.
The USS Abraham Lincoln entered the Gulf in a normal rotation of forces, and
the USS Harry Truman and its battle group began heading toward their home base
at Norfolk, Va., officials said. Ham said the two carriers were together in
the Gulf for only a day, and that they conducted joint air exercises in the
northern Gulf.
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Associated Press writer Lolita C. Baldor, traveling with Defense Secretary
Robert Gates in Mexico City and Texas, contributed to this report.
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