More than 4000 of the Iranian National Guard, Al Quds Corps and the Intelligence Ministry are in Iraq

Al Mendhar:

During the past three years, Iran has been the major player in Iraq for several reasons. Everyone is speaking about the Iranian interference in Iraq and the spread of Iranian intelligence agents and the Guard elements intensively in the south, symbolically in the north and secretly in Baghdad.

A) According to some documents, in addition to the statements of colonel Ismael, a leader of Al Quds Corps, who fled from Iran and Al Sharq Al Awsat has previously published an interview with him, Major Yasser, from the Guard intelligence, and a top official from the office of the Supreme Guide Khamenei, who requested anonymity, 3000-4000 men from the Guard and Al Quds Corps and the intelligence ministry have been sent to Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein, within approximately 14 thousand men from Badr Corps, Iraqi volunteers in Al Baseej and the sons of Iranian families deported from Iraq, who have not only received military training but also in all fields of life, such as reciting religious songs, presenting radio and TV programs, using newspapers, and running Husainias, bookstores, restaurants, and networks for distributing oil, meat and drugs. READ MORE

B) The Iranian intelligence has purchased and rented more than 5000 homes, apartments, stores, warehouses, bookstores, mosques, restaurants, gas stations, etc, in Al Basra, Al Diwaneya, Al Kufa, Al Najaf, Karbala, Al Kazimiyah and Baghdad, for residence and employment places for its intelligence elements, Badr comrades, and a group of Al Da'wa, which is opposing Dr. Ibrahim Al Ja'fari.

C) Upon encouragement and support on behalf of the office of the Supreme Guide and the Islamic Propaganda Organization (Sazeman-e Tablighat-e Islami), more than 2000 Iranian, Afghani and Pakistani students and clergymen (among the students in Qum's Hawza with scholarships on behalf of the Supreme Guide office) headed to Al Najaf and Karbala during the past two years. Two thirds of them are students and clergymen linked to the Iranian intelligence.

D) Ayatollah Khamenei has appointed representatives and agents in the holy Shiite cities. They pay monthly salaries to more than 7000 students and teachers to bring them and make them utter the pledge of allegiance for Khamenei as the leader of the nation and the deputy of Al Mahdi, the Imam who will appear at the end of time. While the top Najaf scholars, such as the Supreme reference Al Sayyid Ali Al Sestani, Al Sayyid Sa'ed Al Hakam, Al Fayyadh, and others, can not afford paying more than $20-80 a month to students and teachers, working at their educational Hawzas, students who are following the approach of the Iranian Supreme Guide receive $ 50-100 a month, while the teachers' salaries are $200-500. According to a document that we viewed, $30-40 million are transferred to Khamenei's representatives and agents in Iraq every month. A part of this sum is designated for payments to people other than students and teachers, including the Shiite clergymen involved in the regime.

E) Within the same context, a group of supporters of the Supreme Guide and elements that previously resided in Iran at the expense of the Guard and its intelligence, or the ruling jurist and his office, have been sent in an attempt to hold key positions in the Iraqi government. The Iranian leadership views them as troy horse of the empire of the Shiite jurist ruler. This is another element that reinforces the conviction of many Iraqis and non-Iraqis that the Iranian regime has a well-studied plan for getting Iraq, even without Kurdistan, under its control, immediately after the departure of the American and British soldiers.

F) There is also an Iranian presence in Kurdistan through thousands of Iranian Kurds, including leaders and elements of the opposing Kurdish democratic party, the opposing Kumala Communist Party, and the Kurdish students, scholars and workers, who are residing in the Kurdish semi-state in search for security from the oppression of the regime, or education in their mother tongue, or working to support their families. The Iranian presence also exists through the Kurdish and Persian cultural and popular delegations visiting Kurdistan, among which the system plants some intelligence elements. Three months ago, a delegation consisting of Iranian singers and artists visited Iraqi Kurdistan, where they held huge concerts. Nevertheless, an intelligence element among them, managed to add poison to the tea of Dr. Serdar Jaff, the son the late Dawood Jaff, the leader of the Kurdish Jaff clan, who fled to Iran with his family after the coup d'état by Abdel kareem Qasem in 1985. His children studied in Iran. The oldest son has become a companion of the Shah, while his second son was elected as an MP for the city of Bawa. After the revolution, Salar was executed upon the orders of Al Khomeini, while Sardar returned with his fortune and Jaff's children have returned to Iraq with their families. Sardar Jaff was a consultant for Dr. Shabour Bekhtiyar, the leader of the national resistance movement, who has been assassinated on behalf of the agents of the Guard in France, by the beginning of the 90s of last century. The activities of Serdar Jaff, and his links with the Iranian resistance, in addition to his influence among the Kurds, were among the factors that made his liquidation a top priority for the Guard. He was finally murdered by adding poison into the cup of tea that he drank during the concert of the Iranian artists.

Iran is also present in Kurdistan through the official Guard intelligence offices in Al Sulaimaniyah and the unofficial offices in Erbil. There is a type of 'gentleman' understanding between the Guard intelligence and the Kurdish authorities in al Sulaimaniyah and Erbil that the Iranian party shall not interfere in Kurdish affairs or chase the opposing Kurds and Iranians in Iraqi Kurdistan, in return for the Kurdish authorities prohibition of establishing armed activities on behalf of the Iranian Kurds against the regime in Iran, through the lands of Iraqi Kurdistan.