Iran presses Shi’ites to step up Iraq attacks: Times

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Iran is pressing Shi’ite militias to
step up attacks against the U.S.-led forces in Iraq in
retaliation for the Israeli assault on Lebanon, the U.S.
ambassador to Iraq told The New York Times in an interview.

Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad also told the Times in Baghdad
on Friday Iran may foment even more violence as it faces off
with the United States and United Nations over its nuclear
program in coming weeks. The newspaper reported on the
interview in Saturday editions.

The remarks were the first public statements by a senior
Bush administration official directly linking violence in Iraq
to Washington’s support of Israel’s military campaign in
Lebanon, and to growing pressure by the United States over
Iran’s nuclear program, the Times said.

Khalilzad said the Iranian incitement had already led to a
surge in mortar and rocket attacks on the Green Zone, now the
seat of the Iraqi government and the American Embassy.

Western security advisers confirmed Friday there had been a
recent spate of mortar and rocket attacks on the Green Zone,
the Times said, but it was unclear whether anyone was wounded
or killed and a spokesman for the American military, Lt. Col.
Barry Johnson, declined to provide details.

According to the ambassador, the Shi’ite guerillas behind
the recent attacks are members of splinter groups of the Mahdi
Army, a militia created by the radical Shiite cleric Moktada
al-Sadr. Those groups are tied to Iran as well as Hizbollah, he
told the Times.

Khalilzad said that while there was no proof Iran was
behind any particular militia operations in Iraq, there was
evidence Iran is pushing for more attacks, although he offered
no specifics, the Times said.

“Iran is seeking to … encourage more pressure on the
coalition from the forces that they are allied with here, and
the same is maybe true of Hizbollah,” he was quoted as saying.

Khalilzad insisted, however, that the most powerful Shi’ite
leaders in Iraq had not yet pushed for more violence against
U.S. troops, despite Iran’s desire for them to do so.

“Generally the Shia leadership here have behaved more as
Iraqi patriots and have not reacted in the way that perhaps the
Iranians and Hizbollah might want them to,” Khalilzad said.

In the interview at his home in the Green Zone, Khalilzad
said Iran could stoke more violence among Shi’ite militias as
the end of the month approaches. A UN Security Council
resolution gives Iran until August 31 to suspend its uranium
enrichment activities or face the threat of economic and
diplomatic sanctions.

“The concern that we have is that Iran and Hizbollah would
use those contacts that they have with groups and … use those
to cause more difficulties or cause difficulties for the
coalition,” he told the newspaper.