Islamic Republic on borrowed time?

A woman walks past an anti-American mural on a wall of the former U.S. embassy in central Tehran May 1, 2008. A senior Iranian official said on Saturday Tehran saw no need for more talks with the United States about Iraqi security until what he described as U.S. attacks on Iraqis stopped, Iran’s Fars News Agency reported. Just this week an Iraqi delegation went to Tehran to present evidence to the Iranians that the whole world knows the Iranians are supporting whatever anti-democratic fighters they can in Iraq (Reuters link);

Members of the United Iraqi Alliance had said the delegation was sent to Tehran to tell Iran to stop backing Shi’ite militias fighting U.S. and Iraqi security forces, underscoring Iraq’s unease over the influence of its powerful neighbor.

But Attiya made no mention of the accusations.

“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 the outlaws,” Attiya said.

“The delegation hopes this visit is the basis for strengthening relations between the two neighboring states.”

CNN reports that the Iraqi delegation told the press that they’d hurt the Iranian’s feelings;

The Iranian side was hurt” by these allegations, Haidar al-Abadi said.

Al-Abadi is a parliament member from the ruling United Iraqi Alliance and a member of al-Maliki’s Dawa party.

He said Saturday that the five-member delegation presented the Iranians with evidence of “weapon and explosive device smuggling, and the existence of training camps for Iraqi militants in Iran.”

The Iraqis also supplied “proof that most of the Basra outlaw leadership had fled into Iran” after a military operation that Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki launched this year against Shiite militias in the southern city, al-Abadi said.

Al-Abadi did not explain what the “evidence” was.

The Iranian officials “completely denied … training, financing and arming” militant groups in Iraq, al-Abadi said.

In another Reuters story, Iranians have cut off relations with US negotiators;

“Should the Americans’ attacks against civilians and the defenseless Iraqi people come to an end, Iran will consider their request for the fourth round of negotiations,” Fars quoted the official as saying.

It said the official was a senior member of the negotiating team with U.S. officials but did not give his name.

“Under the current conditions, with the Americans’ massive attacks on the Iraqi people in various cities, no need is felt for holding negotiations with that country about Iraq’s security,” the official said.

But, after reading Cuffy Meigs, (h/t Ace of Spades) that may just be Iran whistling past the graveyard;

Getting ready to strike the Iranian frontier:

The US military is drawing up plans for a “surgical strike” against an insurgent training camp inside Iran if Republican Guards continue with attempts to destabilise Iraq, western intelligence sources said last week. One source said the Americans were growing increasingly angry at the involvement of the Guards’ special-operations Quds force inside Iraq, training Shi’ite militias and smuggling weapons into the country.

[…]

Meanwhile, Iranian state news is in panic mode — the Sword of Damocles hangs over their head:

On April 29, a second American aircraft carrier, the USS Abraham Lincoln, arrived in the Persian Gulf in what observers see as a tacit declaration of war on the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Of course, the Iranians are counting on the Democrats to pull their fat from the fire – just like Hussein expected them to do. It’s their tough luck that the Cowboy is still running things. A couple of well-placed air strikes could end this war before the November election.

Category: Foreign Policy, Terror War