Iran stirring up trouble in Iraq, says Rumsfeld
US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld accused Iran yesterday of dispatching elements of its Revolutionary Guard to stir trouble inside Iraq.
At the same time, he rejected the idea that Iraq has slipped into civil war, asserting that media reports have overstated recent violence there.
Mr Rumsfeld offered few details about his allegation of interference by Iran, which fought an eight-year war with Saddam Hussein’s Iraq in the 1980s and shares a largely unguarded border.
He told a Pentagon news conference: “They are currently putting people into Iraq to do things that are harmful to the future of Iraq.
“And it is something that they, I think, will look back on as having been an error in judgment.”
He did not elaborate except to say the infiltrators were members of the Al Quds Division of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, the network of soldiers and vigilantes whose mandate is to defeat threats to the 1979 Islamic revolution. The Al Quds Division is responsible for operations outside Iranian territory.
Mr Rumsfeld and other US officials have complained previously of Iranian complicity in the movement of explosives and bomb-making material across the border into Iraq, but he had not mentioned Iranian forces before.
He initially said the infiltrators were doing “things that are harmful to the future of Iraq”.
Later, when asked specifically whether they were gathering intelligence or fomenting violence, Rumsfeld said he did not know what their mission was.
Appearing with Mr Rumsfeld, Marine General Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said although there have been indications of Iranian-manufactured weapons coming into Iraq, “the most recent reports have to do with individuals crossing the border”.
He said he had an estimate of the number but would not reveal it.
Gen Pace said he did not know whether the Iranians were sent by their government. Asked the same question, Mr Rumsfeld replied: “Of course. Quds force, the Revolutionary Guard, doesn’t go milling around willy-nilly, one would think.”
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