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American Foreign Policy Council, Washington, DC Associate Editor: Artem Agoulnik
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IRAN’S PLANS FOR IRAQ Iran has taken advantage of Iraq’s lingering instability to deeply penetrate its eastern neighbor, where it has launched a massive insurgency campaign aimed at preventing the establishment of a secular, pro-Western state, a former Iranian official has revealed. In a recent interview with London’s influential Al-Sharq al-Awsat newspaper, the intelligence officer – identified only as “Hajj Saeedi” – disclosed that Iran has successfully infiltrated hundreds of operatives from its clerical army, the Pasdaran, into Iraq via Kurdish areas not yet firmly under the control of the Iraqi Governing Council. The Iranian agents – including members of the Pasdaran’s feared paramilitary “Qods Corps” – have since established a major presence throughout the country, where they have begun active recruitment, propaganda and insurgency operations. According to Saeedi, such activities include the formation of a cadre of radicalized Iraqi youth, who will be mobilized during the country’s upcoming parliamentary elections, as well as the targeting and elimination of prominent opposition leaders – most notably, the assassination last summer of the Ayatollah Muhammad Bakr al-Hakim, head of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq. These efforts are reportedly subsidized by Tehran to the tune of $70 million a month, which has been used in part to pay off friendly Iraqi clerics, maintain an extensive network of safe-houses and bases for Iranian agents, and to foment sectarian strife among Iraq’s minorities. “In the 1980’s and on the orders of Imam Khomeyni, we took our battle with the United States to Lebanon,” Saeedi said. “We are today moving our battle with the United States to Iraq on the orders of the revolution guide so that it will recognize our role there too.” (London Al-Sharq al-Awsat, April 3, 2004) THE NEW FRONT Uzbekistan continues to grapple with last week’s bloody terrorist bombings, which killed 47 and injured 54 in the Central Asian republic. Officials have arrested 19 people in connection with the attacks, with official sweeps targeting “dangerous people” from a list maintained by the Uzbek government to monitor religious dissidents. But while Uzbek officials initially implicated the radical Hizb ut-Tahrir movement in the violence, subsequent reports suggest a different culprit. On April 1st, Ilya Pyagay, the Uzbek Interior Ministry’s deputy anti-terrorism chief, confirmed the involvement of “Wahhabis” affiliated with al-Qaeda in the wave of terror that has swept his country. (Fox News, April 1, 2004; Radio Free Europe, April 5, 2004) COALITION-BUILDING IN THE CASPIAN Newly appointed Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov and his Iranian counterpart, Kamal Kharrazi, met on the sidelines of the Caspian littoral conference held in Moscow in early April to discuss a “collective” counterterrorism strategy for the region. Moscow and Tehran, which have been at odds over the legal delimitation of the Caspian Sea in recent times, expressed a newfound accord regarding security in the energy-rich area. In his opening remarks before the forum, Lavrov suggested that combating current threats is the “main and common task” for all Caspian states, and said that Iran’s plans for a regional counterterrorism structure “deserved consideration and possibly support.” Kharrazi, for his part, stated that Tehran hopes to intensify its ties with Moscow in the “spheres of policy making and security.” The reason for the Russo-Iranian thaw is clear. Both countries have begun to express growing concern over the expanding U.S. military presence in the region, which has led Russian officials to formally reject any moves toward regional demilitarization. (Radio Free Europe, April 5, 2004; Moscow RIA-Novosti, April 6, 2004) YEMEN’S COUNTERTERRORISM STRATEGY Yemen’s prime minister is claiming success in his country’s battle against al-Qaeda, thanks to an unexpected tactic – payoffs and bribes. Abdul-Kader Bajammal says his government has succeeded in dismantling some 90 percent of al-Qaeda’s infrastructure in Yemen through counterterrorism cooperation with the United States and through more unconventional financial incentives to various tribes harboring terrorist elements within the country. “The issue turned out to be a business issue,” according to Bajamal. “As long as the others (terrorists) are going to pay, why shouldn’t we pay? If we want to avoid a confrontation and the spilling of blood, then money has no value in this respect.” (London Herald, April 5, 2004) |
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© 2004, American Foreign Policy Council.
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