In her Jerusalem Post column, Caroline Glick sketches out the regional war confronting both Israel and the United States. The Telegraph reports on the order given by President Bush to go after Iranian operatives in Iraq. The Telegraph story adds some details regarding Iranian support for the sectarian violence in Iraq:
Iran has set up a network of fake import-export companies in Iraq’s Anbar province to channel funds to Sunni fighters, The Sunday Telegraph has learnt.
At secret meetings, tribal sheikhs with close ties to the insurgents revealed details of the money-laundering to Michael Rubin, a former Pentagon official and political adviser to the Coalition Provisional Authority.
“Truckloads of Iranian appliances like televisions are shipped into Iraq, apparently legitimately, and then sold for cash that can be channelled to Sunni insurgents,” said Mr Rubin, now at the American Enterprise Institute think-tank. “The Iranians are very pragmatic about who they will deal with.
“The underlying assumption of those like Tony Blair and the Iraq Study Group, who back talks with Teheran, is that a stable Iraq is somehow in Iran’s interests. But that’s not so. Iran does not want a new Somalia on its borders, but nor does it want to live next to Switzerland. They are happy with managed chaos.”
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