The confrontation between Coalition forces and the Mahdi Army and the Iranian-trained Special Groups in Baghdad, Basra and the wider south is having some nasty consequences for the Iranian regime. The Iraqi government sent a delegation to Iran to present evidence of Iranian collusion with the Mahdi Army and other Shia terror groups attacking Iraqi civilians and U.S. and Iraqi security forces. This has shone an unwelcome light on the Iranian government’s complicity in the killing of their purported Shia brethren in Iraq. And as Bill Ardolino has reported from Baghdad, the Iraqi Shia have begun to recognize that Iran is behind for much of the violence against the Iraqi people. But in perhaps the most surprising development, Iranian political leaders have been forced to admit that their country is responsible for the bloodshed. Former Iranian president Mohamad Khatami surprisingly criticized his country’s leadership yesterday for exporting terror to neighboring countries:
This sparked a backlash from the Iranian regime:
Khatami’s statements also sparked a debate about the legitimacy of suicide bombings:
So we now have an influential Iranian cleric and politician [who is by no means the moderate he is portrayed to be] openly stating his country is behind terror attacks and the Iranian establishment having to defend itself in the domestic and foreign media.
