NCRI – Iran has significantly escalated its involvement in Iraq, "raising the heat" by supplying more sophisticated weaponry that is used against US targets and undermining progress made by the current US troop increase, Iraqi national security adviser Mowaffak al Rubaie said yesterday in an interview that appeared on the Washington Post’s website.
The number of detained Iranian regime’s agents and intercepted Iranian arms shipments this year represents only the "tip of the iceberg" of Tehran’s activity in Iraq, Rubaie told editors and reporters at The Washington Post. "What we have arrested is a peanut," he said. Iran’s meddling has increased particularly since the United States and Iran reached a stalemate after August talks in Baghdad, he said.
Rubaie said Iran’s top officials, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, have approved of Iran’s current strategy.
"There is one policy in Iran and others execute that policy, and that’s done through the National Security Council. And its chairman is the Supreme Leader," said Rubaie, a Shi’ite Muslim who has had close ties with Iran in the past.
Rubaie said Iran’s war supplies to militants include upgrades from RPG-7s, a shoulder-fired, rocket-propelled grenade first used by the Soviet Union in the 1960s, to the much more deadly RPG-29, a larger, new generation antitank weapon with warheads capable of penetrating American tank armor.
Iran also has provided militants with 240mm missiles that can hit targets 25 to 30 miles away, the longest range missile now used against US troops in Iraq. Several have been fired in recent months at the fortified Green Zone where US and international officials are headquartered. Iran also has provided Iraqi militants with more advanced surface-to-air missiles, Rubaie said.
Iran is now "everywhere" in Iraq – politically, economically, socially, culturally and in support of militants and insurgents, Rubaie said, adding that he also could not rule out Iran’s infiltration of Iraq’s fledgling intelligence agencies.
