US Points Fingers to Cover Failures in Iraq

As a way to draw attention from American shortcomings in Iraq, the US is accusing Iran of trying to destabilize the war-torn country, the Iranian ambassador to Iraq said. “US security plans for Iraq have not succeeded,” Hassan Kazemi Qomi told CNN earlier this week.

“The administration is pointing fingers at others, and by accusing others try to cover up their own failed plans,” he said.

“If you look at the Iraqi scene, just in the past several months, you will see clearly that terrorist and sabotaging forces, as also agreed by US officials, are from those who have come from outside Iraq, and, US authorities too have said, are mostly from countries whose governments are, on the surface of things, US allies. The US government does not confess this reality.”

And while it is true the US and Iran have no diplomatic relations and “we have differences,” Kazemi-Qomi said, “thus far, not one Iranian youth, not a single Iranian citizen has engaged in suicide and terrorist attacks against American troops in Iraq.”

On Wednesday, the top US general in Iraq repeated to reporters what US officials have previously said: “That Iranian operatives in Iraq pose a danger to the country.

There is “a sophistication of attacks that would by no means be possible without Iranian support,” Gen. David Petraeus said.

Petraeus’ comments came after he and US Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker testified during two days of congressional hearings on the state of affairs in Iraq.

Their report “resembles a theatrical scenario more than anything,” Kazemi-Qomi said.

“Under the current circumstances, the Americans are making two strategic mistakes,” he said.

“The first mistake is their effort to return, to bring back to power people accused of murders from the previous regime.”

“The second mistake,” Kazemi-Qomi said, “is arming some groups and some terrorist groups in Iraq that worked against the Iraq people until yesterday and continue their terrorist activities against the government of Iraq. The US is arming these groups in the name of supporting tribes without coordination with the Iraqi government.”

This action is “building a crisis on the sidelines of the main events that are going on in Iraq, which is creating a schism among different tribes,” Kazemi-Qomi said.

Iran recommends that the US end these policies if it wants to solve the problems and serve Iraq, he said.

“Instead of arming forces that act outside the law and government, the US should arm and help the government, army and the police,” Kazemi-Qomi said.

If the US is concerned about the situation in Iraq, it must “support the Iraq government to establish its own army and allow other neighboring countries who want to help in this respect to step in,” Kazemi-Qomi said.

He also declared that Tehran was not concerned about the prospect of the United States expanding the war in Iraq to Iran.

“We have no fear of the outbreak of war. In the past several months, under different pretexts, the Americans tried to create a US-Arab alliance against Iran. But it didn’t work, and we don’t have any problems with the Arab countries.”