Iran will assist Syria against the impact of any proposed US sanctions, particularly any that hit the country's oil industry, according to a senior Iranian official.
Mohsen Mirdamadi, who heads Iran's parliamentary National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, said, "Iran is ready to extend assistance to Syria in all fields, especially the oil sector," if the US imposes sanctions under the Syria Accountability and Lebanese Sovereignty Act that was passed Oct. 15 by the US House of Representatives.
The bill proposes sanctions against Syria because of that country's alleged ties to terrorists and purported efforts to obtain weapons of mass destruction. They would include bans on exports of US military and dual-use technology and on financial assistance to trade, downgrading US diplomatic representation in Syria (where there is presently a US ambassador), and other measures.
It has yet to go before the Senate, but President George W. Bush late last month ended 2 years of opposition to the proposed legislation, indicating he would sign the bill.
"We condemn it, and we think that resorting to this unilateral action is illogical, ineffective, and internationally unacceptable," Iran Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told reporters Oct. 16. "We consider this to be a measure influenced by Israel's supporters in the US," Asefi added, warning the US government "not to commit the same mistake in Syria as it committed in Iraq."
US-Syrian tensions
The US government has been unhappy with Syria's refusal to expel leaders of Islamic Jihad and Hamas, two Palestinian groups designated by the US Department of State as terrorist organizations. The Bush administration also claims Syria—along with Iran—is turning a blind eye to the infiltration of terrorists into Iraq.
US Sec. of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said Oct. 24 that Syria and Iran are complicating efforts to stabilize Iraq because foreign fighters linked to the Al-Qaeda terrorist network are crossing their borders to attack US troops and their allies.
Kuwait's Al-Ra'y al-Amm newspaper reported Oct. 25 that US forces are now talking of a large mobilization of Al-Qaeda forces in Iraq and that hundreds of Al-Qaeda fighters are now working alongside members of the former Iraqi regime to undermine the US-led coalition's authority. Sources in the Coalition Provisional Authority, which now governs Iraq, said the number of Al-Qaeda combatants and Arab recruits in that country substantially increased in mid-August, the newspaper reported.
Terrorists tracked
According to the Kuwaiti newspaper, coalition sources said large numbers of Al-Qaeda combatants from Saudi Arabia used Iranian territory as their route into Iraq.
These infiltrators go to Ilam in western Iran where local smugglers help them cross the border to Al-Kut in the south and Ba'qubah in central Iraq.
According to US sources cited by the paper, other groups of Al-Qaeda combatants come from Pakistan's Baluchistan region and stay for a while in Iran at Zabul and Zahedan.
Still other Al-Qaeda fighters reportedly come from Afghanistan's Herat province and gather near the Iranian city of Mashhad. These groups are later transported to the northern part of Iraqi Kurdistan where they mix with members of Ansar al-Islam as they make their way to the Iraqi cities of Al-Ramadi, Tikrit, Balad, and Al-Falujah.
It was reported Al-Qaeda initially had 600-800 combatants in Iraq, but the number increased significantly, allowing it to form two new units called Jundullah ("Warriors of God") and Al-Usud ("the Lions").
Al-Usud members gather in northwestern Iraq close to Syria where they receive newcomers from across the border, the newspaper reported. Together with Jundullah members, the Al-Usud fighters have carried out recent attacks on oil installations in Mosul and Baiji, it said.
UK's chief representative in Iraq, Sir Jeremy Greenstock, appeared to confirm the Kuwaiti report, telling the British Broadcasting Corp. on Oct. 27 that fighters were entering Iraq "from further afield than the neighbors" and that "there are probably some people coming in from Afghanistan, from further afield in the Islamic world."
At the same time, however, Greenstock implicated both Syria and Iran in the attacks, saying that while the two regimes had been cooperating with the effort to restore order in Iraq, they "also have elements in their authorities who want to meddle."
Syria and Iran each deny they are interfering in Iraq, saying they cannot control the flow of fighters across their lengthy borders.
But their denials came under further suspicion Oct. 27, following the arrest of a Syrian national in connection with bombing attacks in Baghdad.
Brig. Gen. Mark Hertling of the US Army's 1st Armored Division told a news conference Oct. 27 that Iraqi police shot the man when he tried to throw a grenade at a Baghdad police station. "He's a foreign fighter. He had a Syrian passport, and the policemen claim that as he was shot and fell that he said he was Syrian," Hertling said.