Gamble on Iran confrontation continues, but this may be a bit of good news

Patrick Cockburn, who has consistently been one of the best Western reporters on the Iraq War, reports US military frees nine Iranians held after Iraq raids Independent 11/10/07. This could actually be some good news that could ease tensions with Iran a bit:

The United States military in Iraq has freed nine Iranians, including two who were seized in January in a failed American helicopter raid aimed at detaining Iran's most senior intelligence officers while they were on an official visit to northern Iraq.

"All nine individuals were determined to no longer pose a security risk and to be of no continued intelligence value," said a US military statement in Baghdad that may signal some easing of tension between Washington and Tehran.

Presumably, the Dark Lord isn't too happy about this. Cockburn reports, "Opposition to freeing the Iranians has consistently come from the Vice-President, Dick Cheney. His office said that their detention showed that the US would act firmly against any Iranian operatives in Iraq." And, of course, he wants to widen the Iraq War to Iran.

Cockburn mentions a couple of other things that are noteworthy. One is about Iran's seizure of those British sailors earlier this year:

US officials are reported to have believed that the seizure of 15 British sailors and Royal Marines in March may have been a tit-for-tat response by Iran seeking to put pressure on the US through Britain to free the Iranian officials taken in Arbil. In April, the Bush administration overruled a recommendation by the US State Department that the five officials, whom it claims are Iranian Revolutionary Guard intelligence officers, be freed because they were no longer useful. One reason advanced for not freeing them was that it would look like a quid pro quo for the 15 Britons being freed by Iran.

He also reports on our allies in Baghdad, the current Iraqi government, and their attitude toward widening the war to Iran:

The Iraqi government is extremely worried by the prospect of the US starting a war against Iran, saying that this would inevitably lead to Iran striking back, probably using Iranian proxies or sympathisers, in Iraq. Most of the parties, Shia and Kurdish, in the Baghdad government have strong links with Iran. These are unlikely to be severed by the US seizing visiting Iranian officials and in the past Iran has retaliated either covertly or overtly. The recent detention of a visiting Iranian official in the Kurdish city of Sulaymaniyah by US forces led to Iran immediately closing its border with Iraqi Kurdistan.

Tags: iran war, patrick cockburn