Iraqi Officials Rebuff Ramsfeld Over Iran Remarks

Excerpt from report by Basil Muhammad from Baghdad and Tehran: “Talabani’s adviser to Al-Hayat: US accusations violate sovereignty. Baghdad investigating the smuggling of Iranian weapons. It distances itself from Rumsfeld’s accusations”, published by London-based newspaper Al-Hayat website on 14 August

The Iraqi government announced yesterday that it is investigating accusations levelled by US Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld against Tehran with regard to the smuggling of weapons to Iraq where they are used in operations against US and Iraqi forces. [Passage omitted]

Abu Ahd al-Musawi, an adviser at the Iraqi presidency, has told Al-Hayat that the statements made by the US secretary of defence with regard to the existence of Iranian weapons [in Iraq] stamped with the emblem of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards are a violation of Iraq’s sovereignty, noting that Iraqi-Iranian relations are the business of the Iraqi Government. He added that “Al-Ja’fari’s government, which stems from an elected Iraqi parliament, has chosen to strengthen its relations with Tehran.” Al-Musawi urged Al- Ja’fari’s government to respond to the statements made by the US secretary, and to adopt measures that prevent the issuance of such statements in the future, noting that the government is “making progress with regard to safeguarding its sovereignty”.

Hasan Sari, leader of Hezbollah in Iraq, has told Al-Hayat that Rumsfeld’s statements are baseless. He added: “We have become used to US accusations. They fall within the US policy in the region, which is hostile towards Iran.”

Sari added that “the issue of US-Iranian relations does not concern the Iraqis. What concerns us is developing Iraqi-Iranian relations. Al-Ja’fari’s government has made important strides in this regard.”

Regarding US accusations against the Lebanese Hezbollah in terms of smuggling weapons to Iraq, Sari stressed that Hezbollah has no activities in southern Iraq, noting that “the popularity of Hezbollah leader Hasan Nasrallah is very weak, and he does not enjoy the sympathy of Shi’i governorates”.

Iraqi Interior Minister Bayan Baqir Sulagh Jabr described two days ago the accusations levelled against Iran as “exaggerated”.

Meanwhile, Hamid-Reza Asefi, the spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, rejected two days ago Rumsfeld’s accusations, noting that Rumsfeld “wants to justify the United States’ wrong actions in Iraq”. The Iranian News Agency cited Assefi as saying that “US officials are facing pressure from world and regional public opinion as well as from the Muslim Iraqi people, and thus they create a fictitious enemy to justify their failure.”