Two Iranians identified by an Iraqi official as members of Islamic Republic intelligence services were arrested in Baghdad on charges of plotting a car bomb attack. Iraqi police on Monday arrested two Iranians suspected of attempting to carry out car bombing in east of Baghdad.
The announcement of the arrests by the Iraqi Interior Ministry was a rare instance tying Iranians to a particular attack, the AP reports from Baghdad.
The arrested men are members of the Islamic Republic intelligence forces, Iraq’s deputy interior minister Hekmat Mussa Solieman told al Sabbah newspaper, but AP said no evidence linked the men to the Iranian government.
Monday's arrests came on the heels of Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari’s comments a day earlier in the Sunday Telegraph accusing “some neighboring countries” of financing and training terrorists in Iraq.
Foreign ministry spokesman Hamid-Reza Asefi said Iran has no interest in fomenting instability in Iraq, and according to AP, many observers believe that a smooth elections in Iraq could benefit mostly Shiite Iran, since a vote will likely bring an Iraqi government dominated by Shiites.
To date, Iran has not been considered a source of manpower or financing for Iraq's mainly Sunni Muslim insurgency, an unnamed Western diplomat in Baghdad told AP.
Instead, Iran is believed to be involved in intelligence gathering inside Iraq, while quietly funding Shiite political parties in a bid to influence the government that emerges from January's elections, the diplomat said.
The US fears Iran wants to establish a fundamentalist Shiite regime in the image of the Islamic Republic in Iraq.
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