Suddenly, the news media are discovering that Iran is meddling in Iraq. Who knew? (Well, we did, but then, our opinions don’t count because we believe the war in Iraq was necessary.)
When Fadhil Abbas determined that his mother’s astigmatism required surgery, they did not consider treatment in his home town of Najaf, in southern Iraq. Instead they joined a four-taxi convoy of ailing Iraqis headed to Iran.
For more than two weeks last fall, Abbas, his sister and his mother were treated to free hotels, trips to the zoo and religious shrines, and his mother’s $1,300 eye surgery at a hospital in Tehran, all courtesy of the offices of Moqtada al-Sadr, Iraq’s ascendant Shiite Muslim cleric. Abbas returned to Najaf glowing over the technical prowess of Iran.
[…] Iran has dispatched 56 diplomats to staff its embassy in Baghdad and consulates in Basra and Karbala. It maintains informal liaison offices in the Kurdish cities of Sulaymaniyah and Irbil, the latter of which was raided Jan. 11 by U.S. troops, who arrested five Iranians. Each day, Iran provides 1,000 tons of cooking gas, about 20 percent of the Iraqi demand, and 2 million liters of kerosene. Iran exports electricity through Iraq’s Diyala province and plans to quadruple the amount with new projects, Iraqi officials say.
Iran has also extended a $1 billion line of credit to Iraq to help fund reconstruction and rebuilding. When Iraqi President Jalal Talabani and his delegation of ministers visited Iran in November, he asked for more help and said Iraq “would like to expand our relations in every field with the Islamic Republic of Iran.”
“The economic power between the two countries, it’s enormous,” said Hassan Kazemi Qomi, Iran’s ambassador to Iraq. “We can help them in technical issues and engineering. We have a lot of experience in building roads and airports.”
Iran is looking to become a superpower in the Middle East. Iran is also working on expanding its influence in Latin America. The Monroe Doctrine may need to be reinstated here.
I’m starting to see echoes of the Soviet Union, but on a much, much smaller scale. However, a nuclear-armed Iran would tip the scales in its favor. As to that, North Korea is apparently helping Iran perfect its nukes.
Everywhere you turn, it seems, Iran is there, stirring up trouble. I have a bad feeling about this.