7/28/2019 Iran Funnels New Weapons to Afghanistan Mint July 05, 2011

1/1

20 MONDAY, JULY 4, 2011,DELHI

COPYRIGHT DOWJONES& COMPANY, INC.ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

WWW.LIVEMINT.COM

3

mint

Whats News-Euro zone finance ministers have approved a 12 billioninstalment of Greeces bailout, but signalled that the na-tion must expect significant losses of sovereignty and

jobs. Eurog roup chair man Jean- Claude Juncke r w arnedGreeks that help from the EU and International MonetaryFund would have unpleasant consequences. The sover-eignty of Greece will be massively limited, he told Ger-manys Focus magazine in the interview.

Michigan Con-gressman Thad-deus McCotterhas officially an-nounced that he

will seek the Re-publican Partysnomination forpresident.

Secretary ofStateHillary Clintonsaid MoammarGadhafis threatsof retaliatory at-

tacks in Europewont deter theNATOs missionin Libya.

Vladimir Klitsch-ko beat BritainsDavid Haye on aunanimous poin-ts decision on

Saturday to addthe WBA heavy-

weigh t t itle to histhree other belts.

New York state AttorneyGeneral Eric Schneidermanhas issued subpoenas seek-ing new depositions fromBank of America Corpschief executive and othercurrent and former execu-tives, according to peoplefamiliar with the situation.The subpoenas are a signthat Mr. Schneiderman,

who becam e N ew Yorkstop law-enforcement offi-cial this year, doesnt in-tend to drop the civil-fraudinvestigation of Bank of

Americ a be gun more than

a year ago under predeces-sor Andrew Cuomo. Mr.Cuomo, now the governorof New York, accused Bankof America, former ChiefExecutive Kenneth D. Lewisand former Chief FinancialOfficer Joseph Price of de-liberately misleading share-holders about ballooninglosses at Merrill Lynch &Co. before the securitiesfirm was acquired by Bankof America in 2008.

***Jordans KingAbdullah IIapproved Saturday a gov-ernment reshuffle made byPrime Minister Marouf Ba-khit, in a move seen to pla-cate protestors denouncingcorruption and demandingeconomic reforms. TheKing has accepted a reshuf-fle to Prime Minister Mar-ouf Bakhits government,the statement said. Thenew cabinet, which exclud-ed seven ministers from theprevious cabinet includingthe Interior Minister SaadHayel Srour, was sworn in

Saturday in front of theking, the statement added.

***Exxon Mobil Corp. shut apipeline carrying crude oilto at least two refineries af-ter the line leaked into the

Yello wstone River in Mon-tana. The company isolatedthe segment where the re-lease occurred on Saturdayfrom the 12-inch line oper-ated byExxon Mobil Pipe-line Co., Kevin Allexon, acompany spokesman, saidin an email. The pipelineruns about 70 miles from

Silvertip in south-centralMontana to Billings, whereit supplies a 60,000-barrel-a-day Exxon Mobil refineryand a 61,000-barrel-a-dayrefinery operated by Cono-coPhillips, according toBloomberg data.

***The Swiss government saysit has frozen 27 millionSwiss francs ($31.8 million)linked to senior Syrian offi-cials. A spokeswoman forSwitzerlands State Secre-tariat for Economic Affairs,

Antje Baert schi, confir medlocal media reports Sundaythat the assets were identi-fied as part of the Swisssanctions imposed againstSyrian President Bashar As-sad and 22 others. Switzer-land has taken similarmeasures to freeze 650 mil-lion francs linked to the re-gime of Libyan leaderMoammar Gadhafi, 410million francs to EgyptsHosni Mubarak and 60 mil-lion to Tunisias Zine El

Abidine Ben Ali.

WSJ.com

Formore international business news,log on towww.india.wsj.com

Iran funnels new weaponsto Iraq and Afghanistan

BY JAY SOLOMONTEHRAN

Irans elite military unit, theIslamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, has trans-

ferred lethal new munitions toits allies in Iraq and Afghan-istan in recent months, ac-cording to senior U.S. officials,in a bid to accelerate the U.S.

withd rawal s from thes e coun-tries.

The Revolutionary Guardhas smuggled rocket-assistedexploding projectiles to its mi-litia allies in Iraq, weaponsthat have already resulted inthe deaths of American troops,defense officials said. Theysaid Iranians have also givenlong-range rockets to the Tali-ban in Afghanistan, increasingthe insurgents ability to hitU.S. and other coalition posi-

tions from a safer distance.Such arms shipments wouldescalate the shadow competi-tion for influence playing outbetween Tehran and Washing-ton across the Middle East andNorth Africa, fueled by U.S.preparations to draw downforces from two wars and thepolitical rebellions that aresweeping the region.

The U.S. is wrestling with theaftermath of uprisings againstlongtime Arab allies from Tu-nisia to Bahrain, and trying toleave behind stable, friendlygovernments in Afghanistanand Iraq. Iran appears to betrying to gain political groundamid the turmoil and to makethe U.S. withdrawals as quickand painful as possible.

I think we are likely to seethese Iranian-backed groupscontinue to maintain high at-tack levels as the exit datenears, Maj. Gen. James Buch-anan, the U.S. militarys topspokesman in Iraq, said in aninterview. But they are not go-ing to deter us from doing ev-erything we can to help theIraqi security forces.

In June, 15 U.S. servicemend ie d i n I ra q, t he h ig he stmonthly casualty figure therein more than two years. TheU.S. has attributed all the at-tacks to Shiite militias it saysare are trained by the Revolu-tionary Guards, rather than alQaeda or other Sunni groupsthat were the most lethal forc-es inside Iraq a few years ago.

In Afghanistan, the Penta-

gon has in recent monthstraced to Iran the Talibans ac-quisition of rockets that giveits fighters roughly double therange to attack North AtlanticTreaty Organization and U.S.targets. U.S. officials said therockets markings, and the lo-cation of their discovery, givethem a high degree of confi-dence that they came from theRevolutionary Guards over-seas unit, the Qods Force.

U.S. defense officials arealso increasingly concernedthat Irans stepped-up militaryactivities in the Persian Gulfcould inadvertently trigger a

clash. A number of near missesinvolving Iranian and alliedships and planes in those wa-ters in recent months havecaused Navy officials to call forimproved communication inthe Gulf.

Irans assertive foreign poli-cy comes amid a growing pow-er struggle between PresidentMahmoud Ahmadinejad andSupreme Leader Ayatollah AliKhamenei. Many of the presi-dents closest aides have beendetained on alleged corruptioncharges in recent weeks, rais-ing questions as to whetherMr. Ahmadinejad will serveout his term.U.S. and Europe-an officials also say Iran hasgrown increasingly aggressivein trying to influence the polit-ical rebellions across the Mid-dle East and North Africa. Te-hran is alleged to have dis-patched military advisers toSyria to help President Basharal-Assad put down a popularuprising.

In recent months, accordingto U.S. officials, Iran has alsoincreased its intelligence andpropaganda activities in Egypt,Bahrain and Yemen, countries

where pro-U .S. leade rs haveeither fallen or come under in-tense pressure.

Iranian officials denied ininterviews and briefings this

week that the Revol utiona ryGuard played any role in arm-ing militants in Iraq and Af-ghanistan. They charged theU.S. with concocting these sto-ries to justify maintaining an

Ameri can milit ary pres ence inthe region.

This is the propaganda ofthe Americans. They are wor-ried because they have to leaveIraq very soon, according tothe plan, said Iranian ForeignMinistry spokesman RaminMehmanparast. They are bet-ter off going home and sortingout their own domestic prob-lems.

Iranians officials have alsoaccused the U.S. and Israel ofinterfering in Iranian affairs,including assassinating Irani-an nuclear scientists and sup-porting opposition groups. The

U.S. and Israel have deniedthis. In recent weeks, Iransleadership invited the presi-

dents of Afghanistan, Pakistanand Iraq to Tehran to discussregional affairs.

Senior Iranian officials madeit clear during those meetingsthat they wanted an accelerat-ed exit of American forcesfrom the region.

Americans want to havepermanent bases in Afghan-istan, and this is dangerous be-cause the real security will notbe established as long as the

Americ an milita ry force s arepresent, Ayatollah Khameneitold Afghan President HamidKarzai last week, according toIranian state media.

Iraq has in recent years beena proxy battlefield for the U.S.and Iran. U.S. officials in Iraqsaid the Qods Force is trainingand arming three primary mili-tias that have in recent monthsattacked U.S. and Iraqi forces.Kataib Hezbollah, or Brigadesof the Party of God, is viewedas the one most directly takingorders from RevolutionaryGuard commanders in Iran.Two others, the Promise DayBrigade and Asaib Ahl al-Haq,are offshoots of the Mahdi

Army head ed by the anti-Americ an cler ic Muqtad a al-Sadr, who currently lives inIran.

Over the past six months,Kataib Hezbollah has escalat-ed attacks on U.S. forces em-p lo yi ng w ea po ns c al le dIRAMs, or improvised rocket-assisted munitions. The weap-ons are often propane tanksp ac ke d w it h h un dr ed s o f

pounds of explosives and pow-ered by rockets. Militiamenlaunch the weapons from thebacks of flatbed trucks.

Kataib Hezbollah claimedcredit for a June 6 IRAM attackthat killed six American troopsat Camp Victory, near BaghdadInternational Airport. This

week, three more Americ answere kille d when an IRAMstruck a desert base just a fewmiles from the Iranian borderin Iraqs Wasit Province, ac-cording to U.S. officials.

We believe the militias seethemselves as in competition

with each other , said Gen.

Buchanan. They want toclaim credit for making usleave Iraq.

The U.S. believes Iranian in-volve ment in Afgha nistan issignificantly lower than inIraq. But U.S. officials said theyhave seen clear evidence thatthe Revolutionary Guard hastransferred longer-range rock-ets to elements of the Talibanthat significantly enhancetheir ability to target U.S. andother NATO forces.

In February, British forcesintercepted a shipment of fourdozen 122-millimeter rocketsmoving through Afghanistansdesolate Nimruz Province nearthe Iranian and Pakistan bor-ders. The rockets have an esti-mated range of about 13 miles,more than double the distanceof the majority of the Talibansother rockets.

It was the first time weveseen that weapon, said a se-nior U.S. defense official in Af-ghanistan. We saw that as up-ping the ante a bit from thekind of support weve seen inthe past.

U.S. officials stressed thatmost of Irans influence in Af-g ha ni st an i s c ha nn el edthrough soft powerbusi-

ness, aid and diplomacy. Butthese officials said the deploy-ment of more U.S. and NATOforces along the Afghan-Irani-an border as part of the Obamaadministrations Afghanistansurge appears to have raisedIrans sense of insecurity.

These officials said Iranssupport for the Taliban ap-pears to wax and wane in rela-tion to how successful Wash-ington and NATO appear to bein stabilizing Afghanistan. Shi-ite-majority Iran has tradition-ally viewed the Taliban, a Sun-ni group, with trepidation. Thetwo sides nearly fought a war

in 1998 after the Taliban exe-cuted Iranian diplomats basedin the central Afghan city ofMazar-i-Sharif.

Theyre supporting the Tal-iban because they want us outof here, said the U.S. official

in Afghanistan. If were mak-ing gains, I can see them up-ping their support. If theyremaking gains, theyll probablystay quiet.

In large part because of thegrowing wariness over Iransbacking of Shiite militias inIraq, the U.S. is considering al-tering its withdrawal plansfrom the country, say adminis-tration and defense officials.

All U.S. force s ar e due to de-part at the end of the year, butsenior American officials havehinted loudly that they wouldlike Baghdad to ask the U.S. tokeep a viable force in the

country beyond that date.Some administration and mili-tary officials have talked aboutretaining 10,000 troops in Iraq.

Military officials and defenseanalysts cite Iran as a prime

just ificat ion for exte nding the

U.S. presence. They say Iran istrying to use its military, whichis much more powerful thanIraqs, and Shiite proxy militiasinside Iraq to pressure Bagh-dad to maintain close ties withTehran.

Adm. Willia m McRave n, theadministrations nominee tolead Special Operations Com-mand, told a Senate panel this

week that he favors keepi ng acommando force in Iraq that

would be availa ble to count erthreats.

Julian E. Barnes contribut-ed to this article.

wsj@livemint.com

U.S. officials sayIrans stepped-upmilitary activitiescouldtriggeraclash

Power game: Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (L) and Interior Minister Mostafa MohammadNajjar. Irans assertive foreign policy comes amid a growing power struggle between Ahmadinejad andSupreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Recently, Iran has

also increased itsintelligence andpropagandaactivities in Egypt,

Bahrain and Yemen

L E A D I N G T H E N E W S

CAREN FIROUZ/REUTERS