Iran 'Ready To Use Syria Methods' In Iraq
Source: Al Jazeera English
Iranian general says Tehran wants to help Iraq fight uprising using same tactics it deployed against rebels in Syria.
Last updated: 29 Jun 2014 15:33
Iran is ready to help Iraq fight an armed uprising using the same methods it deployed against opposition forces in Syria, an Iranian general said, suggesting Tehran was offering to take a larger role in battling Sunni armed groups threatening Baghdad.
Iranian leaders to date have said they would help defend Shia Muslim shrines in neighbouring Iraq if necessary, but have also said Iraqis were capable of doing that job themselves.
Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamanei last week said that he rejected intervention in Iraq by Washington or any other outside power against Sunni fighters from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group.
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Brigadier General Massoud Jazayeri, deputy joint chief of staff of the armed forces and a senior Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) officer, told Iran's al Alam television that Iran's response to the militias would be "certain and serious".
Read more: http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2014/06/iran-ready-use-syria-methods-iraq-2014629134355187726.html
In Iraq, Coordination With Iran Not Impossible, Gen. Dempsey Says
Scott Neuman June 27, 2014
In an interview with All Things Considered, Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, declined to rule out coordination with Iran and Iranian-backed forces in Iraq. Dempsey also told NPR that one option in Iraq might involve U.S. air assets going after "high-value" individuals within the main Sunni insurgent group.
"One of the things we need to find out is whether Iran is embedded in and advising and supporting the Iraqi security forces," Dempsey said. "It is really about understanding facts on the ground before we make a decision on how to address them."
"We will look at Iran with a cold eye on where and when we may need to operate in the same space and toward what is potentially the same goal of countering" the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS.
"But I can state with some assurance that their goals in Iraq are not going to be completely aligned with ours, and we're very clear about that," he told NPR's Melissa Block.
MORE...
http://www.wbur.org/npr/326179051/in-iraq-coordination-with-iran-not-impossible-gen-dempsey-says
Uncle Joe
(58,112 posts)Thanks for the thread, Purveyor.