In Iraq, Kurds train to battle Iran

I've made no secret of the fact that I think Bush is gunning for an opportunity to attack Iran, nor that I do not expect him to even approach Congress for authority, instead relying on a Tonkin Gulf moment where he can claim to be responding to Iranian aggression.

The United States' ambassador to Nato, Victoria Nuland, has told Sky News that:

"For a long time the Iranians have been increasing their aggressive actions in the region, and they have been counting on the US being too tied down in Iraq to do what we have traditionally done, which is to maintain a strong military presence in the Gulf," Nuland told Sky.

The US is committed to "support our friends and partners in that part of the world, many of whom are very scared, particularly in the Gulf region, of Iran's aggressive behaviour," she said.

I notice that Nuland is already beating the Bush drum concerning Iran's "aggression".

Meanwhile in the Kurdish sector of Iraq, recruits are training to attack Iran, even though "they belong to an organization officially outlawed as terrorist by Washington". Despite this fact they appear able to operate quite freely in an area controlled by US forces.

In the Nov. 27 issue of The New Yorker, investigative reporter Seymour Hersh wrote that PEJAK was receiving support from the U.S. as well as from Israel, which fears Iran's nuclear ambitions and Ahmadinejad's call to wipe the Jewish state off the map."

PEJAK says it regularly launches raids into Iran, and Iran has fired back with artillery. In October the English-language Iran Daily, published by Iran's official news agency, said Iran accused PEJAK of killing dozens of its armed forces in insurgent attacks.

So here we have the PEJAK forces, possibly financed by the US and Israel, attacking and killing Iranians inside Iran. And they are doing so from a territory that is controlled by US forces.

James Brandon, an analyst for the U.S.-based Jamestown Foundation, told The Associated Press that PEJAK has refused to discuss its funding sources. But he said its greatest threat to Iran is not military. It has veins running deep into the Iranian Kurdish population and is offering to join forces with other restless minorities in Iran, he said.

Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said "Israel is not involved in any way in what's going on there."

Meir Javedanfar, an Israel-based Iran expert, noted however that Israel has a long-standing relationship with Iraqi Kurdish leader Mustafa Barzani and "It would not surprise me to discover that Israel is using the Kurdish areas of Iraq to undermine Iran's influence in Iraq and monitor what's going on along the Iranian border, as well as to undermine the Iranian government itself."

But we must never forget that it is the Iranians who are being "aggressive" here. At some point, when the Iranians respond to these actions, they will be deemed to have crossed some kind of line and Bush will start to base his justifications on their "aggressive acts".

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tag: Iraq, US foreign policy, Seymour Hersh, Iran, surge and accelerate, Ahmadinejad, Kurdistan, Kurds,