Official Warns of Iranian Infiltration
Iraqi Government Worries That Old Enemies Are Exploiting Open Borders

By Doug Struck
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, July 26, 2004; Page A14


BAGHDAD, July 25 -- Hazim Shalan, Iraq's defense minister, charged in an
interview that Iran has taken over Iraqi border positions, sent spies and
saboteurs into the country and infiltrated the new government -- including
his own ministry. Iran remains "the first enemy of Iraq," he declared.

Shalan's comments were the clearest sign the new government is concerned
that the country's open borders are being exploited by old enemies, turning
Iraq into a battleground for Middle Eastern opponents of the United States.

"I've seen clear interference in Iraqi issues by Iran," Shalan said
Saturday. "Iran interferes in order to kill democracy."

Shalan accused Iran of supporting "terrorism and bringing enemies into
Iraq." Spreading out a hand-drawn map on his desk in the Defense Ministry,
an ornate former government building secluded in the former Green Zone,
Shalan pointed out what he said were numerous Iraqi border positions that
Iran has taken over.

Shalan said that former fighters from Afghanistan have been caught in Iraq
and that they have admitted receiving help from Iranian security forces. A
Sudanese man with Iranian intelligence contacts was caught in April with a
"very powerful poison," Shalan said, and planned to contaminate drinking
water in Diwaniyah, 100 miles south of Baghdad. Two other people who were
"working with Iranian intelligence" were seized in northeastern Iraq three
weeks ago, he said.

Shalan bluntly warned Iran: "We can send the death to Tehran's streets, like
they do to us. But we can't do it if we are a democracy. But if my people
say do it now, I will do it."