Iraq to confront Iran on weapons

This AP photo appeared with the NY Times story excerpted below. Click on the image for a larger picture of a collection of EFPs.

The Iraqi prime minister is sending several senior Shiite leaders to Tehran to discuss their concerns that Iran is arming and financing militias in Iraq, senior Iraqi and American officials said Wednesday.

Iraqi officials including Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki have previously traveled to Iran, but this appears to be the first time that an elite delegation has been dispatched by Mr. Maliki to take up reports of Iranian intervention in Iraq.

American officials supported the trip, but portrayed it as the brainchild of Mr. Maliki. One American official described the Iraqis’ concern about Iran’s role as “the silver lining” to recent fighting between Shiite militias and Iraqi and American security forces in Basra and in the Sadr City area of Baghdad, a militia stronghold.

The delegation, which was scheduled to leave Wednesday, was handpicked by Mr. Maliki, who went out of his way in an interview Wednesday to stress his independence. “I have never been the man of Iran, and I told America that I’m not the man of America in Iraq,” he told Al Arabiya, an Arab news channel.

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The official said the group would raise the issue of the Iranian arms shipments that have been found and other indications that Tehran is meddling in Iraq’s internal affairs. The delegation is expected to visit influential ayatollahs in Qom and to go to Tehran.

One Iraqi official said he expected the group to meet with Brig. Gen. Qassen Suleimani, the head of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Quds Force, a paramilitary group that American officials say is backing Shiite militias in Iraq.

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I suspect that Suleimani will not be candid with them. The others they meet with may or may not be aware of what the Quds force is up to and they may not care, but the trip should put them in an embarrassing position.

Wretchard at the Belmont Club explains how the Iraqis and Americans are approahcing the problem from two different directions.

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The role of the Iraqis, especially the Shi'ites, against Iran is probably going to be confined to pressure on Iranian cells within its borders. CPT Justin Gorkowski at the Small Wars Journal explains how the major Iraqi contribution to the war has been non-kinetic: intelligence, policing, stabilization and information operations. These are the millstones which ultimately grind out underground cells.

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This trip adds another dimension to the confrontation with Iran as does the additional air craft carrier the US just sent into the Persian Gulf. Together they put pressure on Iran to add to the losses Iran has incurred in Iraq in recent fighting. The picture above demonstrates some of the material losses, but the bigger losses have been to their operations in both Basra and Sadr City.