Iran ready to support Iraq in armed revolt against Sunni militias
29 June 2014, 13:42 -- An Iranian general announced that Tehran is ready to support Iraq in an armed revolt employing the same methods used against opposition in Syria, suggesting that Iran has expressed a will to take on a more significant role in fighting Sunni militias that threaten Baghdad, reports Reuters.
Iranian leaders have offered to help defend Shi-ite Muslim shrines on their neighbor's territory if the need arises, but have also said that Iraq is capable of doing that itself.
Iran's Supreme Leader and Shia Cleric Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on June 22 that he rejected intervention in the country against Sunni militants from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militia by Washington or any other outside power.
In recent weeks ISIL has seized a broad swathe of territory in northern and western Iraq in quest to topple the government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, a Shi'ite backed by Iran, and to set up an Islamic caliphate.
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'.
Jazayeri's remarks late on Saturday did not provide details on the assistance Iran could give Baghdad, beyond saying Iran could help with what he called popular defense and intelligence.
'Iran has told Iraqi officials it is ready to provide them with our successful experiments in popular all-around defense, the same winning strategy used in Syria to put the terrorists on the defensive ... This same strategy is now taking shape in Iraq - mobilizing masses of all ethnic groups,' he told the reporters.
'A response is certain and serious,' he said. 'With Syria, too, we announced we would not allow terrorists in the service of foreign intelligence services to rule and dictate to Syrian people. We will certainly have the same approach with Iraq.'
Shi'ite Iran has spent billions of dollars propping up its ally, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, in what has turned into a sectarian proxy war with Sunni Arab states.
The help has included hundreds of military specialists, including senior commanders from the elite Quds Force, the external and secretive arm of the IRGC, according to Iranian sources familiar with deployments of military personnel, Syrian opposition sources and security experts.
Assad has also received battlefield support from fighters of the Lebanese Hezbollah movement, which Tehran also backs.
Jazayeri said Iran would deal with Iraq on defense, security, border control and fortifications. To help Iraq, he said, Iran would monitor the situation, as it had done 'in Syria and other troubled areas in the region'.
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