Nick Smith, July 11, 2004

Iran is becoming increasingly active in its drive to not only derail Iraqi democracy, but also to lead the Islamic radical movement into the future. In recent months, we’ve seen a series of provocations in Iraq that could be considered acts of war and that may make a coalition response necessary:

• Iran appears to have financed and encouraged Shi’ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr’s Mehdi Army, which was behind the April uprising in Sadr City, and Najaf. Al-Sadr continues to defy and denounce the new Iraqi government.

• Border patrols have captured at least 83 Iranians trying to cross illegally into Iraq, and there are several reports of brief incursions of Iranian troops into Iraq along the borders.

• In June, Iranian military forces hijacked a small British navy vessel in the Shatt al-Arab waterway with eight crew members aboard. The released crew members say they were hijacked in Iraqi territorial waters before being escorted to Iran.

• On July 5, American and Iraqi joint patrols, along with U.S. Special Operations teams, captured two men with explosives in Baghdad who identified themselves as Iranian intelligence officers.

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors say Iran is in violation of its commitments as a signatory of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). Iran has engaged in prohibited uranium enrichment activities, is in the process of constructing a heavy-water reactor designed specifically to produce large quantities of plutonium usable for weapons, and is seeking to produce polonium-210, which is used as a weapons initiator. Iran failed to announce any of these activities, as required by the NPT, and they go well beyond any conceivable peaceful nuclear program. Iran has responded to these charges by threatening to end IAEA inspections and withdraw from the NPT.

The State Department continues to recognize Iran as the world’s foremost state sponsor of terrorism. Iran has links to Hizballah, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the Al-Aqsa Martyr’s Brigade and al Qaeda, and has been directly implicated in the 1983 bombing of the U.S. Marine barracks in Beruit, a series of bombings in 1986 in Paris, the 1992 bombing of the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires, and the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia. In recent weeks, two Iranian diplomats assigned to the U.N. in New York were ejected for spying. The diplomats were said to be photographing sensitive sites.

Iran is clearly one of the most dangerous countries in the world, and appears to be stepping up its efforts against a free Iraq, the west, and the United States. We are working with allies to contain these threats, and substantial world pressure is being brought to bear, especially to prevent them from obtaining nuclear weapons. We will need to continue to carefully watch their efforts.

Congressman Nick Smith, a Republican, represents Michigan's 7th Congressional District, which includes Battle Creek and the counties of Branch, Eaton, Hillsdale, Jackson, Lenawee, Calhoun, and Washtenaw in south-central Michigan.