Iraq’s ambassador to Iran Mohammad Madjid al-Sheikh on Tuesday told reporters that Tehran has “played an important role in supporting Iraq politically” but that Baghdad has not asked the Islamic republic for assistance in combating extremist Sunni fighters.
The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) has made steady gains across Iraq in recent weeks, threatening the Shiite government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
The Daily Beast last week detailed Iranian offers to Baghdad of among other things its army and spies in an effort to curb the advance of ISIS across the country. Sheikh’s comments sit uneasily alongside a Monday report from the Washington Free Beacon that Tehran provided shelter and protection to Musab al-Zarqawi, who founded Al Qaeda in Iraq, the predecessor to ISIS:
AQI leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was given protection by Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGS) and was provided with resources to rebuild the infrastructure that has enabled ISIL to take over much of Western Iraq, according to these reports.
Iran’s relationship with AQI founder al-Zarqawi has been well documented by U.S. intelligence and complicates the narrative pushed by Obama administration officials in the wake of ISIL’s violent overthrow of several Iraqi cities.
Meanwhile, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Sunday blasted foreign intervention as an infringement on Iraqi sovereignty:
“We strongly oppose the intervention of the U.S. and others in the domestic affairs of Iraq,” Ayatollah Khamenei was quoted as saying, in his first reaction to the crisis.
“The main dispute in Iraq is between those who want Iraq to join the U.S. camp and those who seek an independent Iraq,” said the ayatollah, who has the final say over government policies. “The U.S. aims to bring its own blind followers to power since the U.S. is not happy about the current government in Iraq.”
The Free Beacon noted that reports of “Iran arming Iraqi insurgents and attempting to destabilize the government emerged in 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2014.”
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