Ali al-Dabbagh clarifies Iran/Iraq

[struggle4progress]

Department of "And You Thought You Had a Crummy Job"

This is an interesting exercise in reading multiple news stories. The first is from Thursday, the rest from Sunday.

Iraq PM sends team to Iran to discuss militias
Khalid al-Ansary and Waleed Ibrahim
Reuters
Published: Thursday, May 01, 2008

... Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said the delegation had taken questions to Tehran that needed answering. Asked if the team, led by the deputy parliament speaker, would raise the issue of arming militias, Dabbagh said: "They will discuss all issues that have been raised ... We expect and want the intervention of Iran to be through the elected government and not through a third party." He did not elaborate ...

http://www.nationalpost.com/news/world/story.html?id=735a3b71-f78a-4a4e-a103-386cb606266a&k=90014

Iraqi official says Iran arms evidence not conclusive
By SAMEER N. YACOUB – 8 hours ago

BAGHDAD (AP) — A top Iraqi official said Sunday there was no conclusive evidence that Shiite extremists have been directly supplied with some Iranian arms as alleged by the United States ... Asked about reports that some rockets made in 2007 or 2008 and seized in raids against militias were directly supplied by Iran, al-Dabbagh replied: "There is no conclusive evidence ... We can't ignore or deny we are neighbors. We do not want to be pushed in a struggle with any country, especially Iran," he told a news conference. "We are fed up with past tensions that we have paid a costly price for because some parties have pushed Iraq .. to take an aggressive attitude to Iran." ...

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5ieBHpmLCZs2BnNfhWErIznsG4OmQD90EVPGO1

Iraq increasingly finds itself caught between U.S. and Iran
The US military in Iraq says Iran continues to aid militants, but Iraqis now say that they want their own evidence.
By Scott Peterson and Howard LaFranchi | Staff writers of The Christian Science Monitor
from the May 5, 2008 edition

... The five-member group sent by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki returned to Baghdad Saturday, saying it had received a "positive" response after confronting officials with US and Iraqi intelligence on Iranian weapons caches that US officials say included weaponry manufactured in 2008.

"The delegation saw a positive stance from the brothers in Iran to support the government's efforts in extending the sovereignty of the state and to fight outlaws," Iraq's deputy parliament speaker Khalid al-Attiya, who visited Iran, said Saturday.

But the next day, the Iraqi government appeared to back away from its claims of Iranian meddling inside Iraq, highlighting the complexity and confusion over Iran's exact role in the Iraq war, its relationship with Moqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia, and the dilemma facing Mr. Maliki as his two chief allies – Washington and Tehran – engage in an ever-increasing war of words.

"We do not want to start a conflict with Iran," says Iraqi spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh. "We need our own government documentation of this interference, not from the Americans, not from the media." ...

http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0505/p01s01-wome.html

Iraq to probe for proof of Iranian meddling

BAGHDAD (AFP) — Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki is to form a panel of security ministries to weed out any evidence of Iranian interference in Iraq's affairs, a top official said on Sunday.

"The prime minister has ordered a special panel of representatives of security ministries to document any Iranian intervention in Iraqi affairs," government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said at a news conference.

He said Iraq had experienced Iranian interference in the past but "we have also experienced a positive role from Iran."

"We are looking for hard evidence and want to present a document at a later stage," Dabbagh told AFP later the same day ...

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5iUmxvV0Vb-xhi8FnNDodlyJuN-sQ

Iraq Says It Has Proof Of Iranian Meddling
Tehran Funneling Weapons, Officials Say
By Amit R. Paley
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, May 5, 2008; Page A10

BAGHDAD, May 4 -- The Iraqi government said Sunday that it has "concrete evidence" Iran is fomenting violence in Iraq and that a high-level panel had been formed to document the proof. The statement came as Iraqi officials find themselves trapped between the United States and Iran, which have each accused the other of wreaking havoc in Iraq ... Ali al-Dabbagh called reporters late Sunday night to clarify remarks he made at a news conference earlier in the day, when he appeared to say that there was no hard evidence that Iran was allowing weapons to come into Iraq. Dabbagh said his comments had been misinterpreted. "There is an interference and evidence that they have interfered in Iraqi affairs," Dabbagh said in an interview arranged by a U.S. official. When asked how he would characterize the proof that Iranian weapons are flowing into Iraq, he said: "It is a concrete evidence." ...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/04/AR2008050401738.html