Iraqi Official Says Iran Has Escalated Involvement in Iraq

Iran has significantly escalated its involvement in Iraq, "raising the heat" by supplying more sophisticated weaponry that is used against U.S. targets and undermining progress made by the U.S. troop increase, Iraqi National Security Adviser Mowaffak al-Rubaie said today.

The number of detained Iranian agents and intercepted Iranian arms shipments this year represents only the "tip of the iceberg" of Tehran's activity in Iraq, Rubaie told editors and reporters at The Washington Post. "What we have arrested is a peanut," he said. Iran's meddling has increased particularly since the United States and Iran reached a stalemate after tense talks in Baghdad in August, he said.

Rubaie's remarks came as U.S. forces killed at least 25 Shiite militants in an operation that targeted a cell suspected of smuggling arms from Iran. The air strike was aimed at the commander of a militia linked to Iran's Quds Force, which is accused of conducting clandestine military operations in Iraq.

Iran has repeatedly denied meddling in Iraq, and even some U.S. officials have questioned whether the activities of the elite Quds Force are specifically authorized by Tehran's top policymakers. But Rubaie asserted that Iran's top officials, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, have approved of Iran's current strategy.

"There is one policy in Iran and others execute that policy, and that's done through the National Security Council. And its chairman is the supreme leader," said Rubaie, a Shiite Muslim who has had close ties with Iran in the past.

Rubaie said Iran's war supplies to militants include upgrades from RPG-7s, a shoulder-fired, rocket-propelled grenade first used by the Soviet Union in the 1960s, to the much more deadly RPG-29, a larger, new generation anti-tank weapon with warheads capable of penetrating American tank armor.

Iran also has provided militants with 240mm missiles that can hit targets 25 to 30 miles away, the longest-range missile now used against U.S. troops in Iraq. Several have been fired in recent months at the fortified Green Zone, where U.S. and international officials are headquartered. Iran also has provided Iraqi militants with more advanced surface-to-air missiles, Rubaie said.

Iran is now "everywhere" in Iraq -- politically, economically, socially, culturally and in support of militants and insurgents, Rubaie said, adding that he also could not rule out Iran's infiltration of Iraq's fledgling intelligence agencies.

Rubaie also had tough words for Saudi Arabia, claiming it had done nothing -- "a big fat zero, zilch" -- in fostering the so-called Sunni "awakening" in Anbar province, where tribal sheikhs have begun turning against al-Qaeda in Iraq. The neighboring kingdom also has not done enough to foster the political reconciliation of Iraq's minority Sunnis.

"Saudi Arabia's role in the political progress has been negative. They're not helping," he said.

Rubaie, who has served in all of Iraq's governments since the 2003 invasion, predicted that the next few months will be particularly difficult. The more pressure the United States applies on Iran -- at the United Nations and with punitive sanctions -- because of Tehran's nuclear program, the more tensions are likely to play out in Iraq, he told editors and reporters at The Post.

"Iran will have no choice," Rubaie said. "We are going to pay a heavy price for the escalation between Iran and the United States."