McClatchy | Warren P. Strobel and Leila Fadel | March 31, 2008 07 …
March 31st, 2008
The Iranian general who helped broker an end to nearly a week of fighting between Iraqi government forces and Shiite Muslim militiamen in southern Iraq is an unlikely peacemaker.
Brig. Gen. Qassem Suleimani, who helped U.S.-backed Iraqi leaders negotiate a deal with radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al Sadr to stop the fighting in Iraq’s largely Shiite south, is named on U.S. Treasury Department and U.N. Security Council watch lists for alleged involvement in terrorism and the proliferation of nuclear and missile technology.
His role as peacemaker, which McClatchy first reported Sunday, underscores Iran’s entrenched political power and its alliances in Iraq, according to analysts.
“The Iranians are into a lot of things, and have a lot of influence,” said Judith Yaphe, a former CIA analyst who’s now at the National Defense University in Washington.
Suleimani, about whom little is known publicly, commands the elite Quds (Jerusalem) force of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. U.S. officials allege that the force is responsible for sending sophisticated roadside bombs, known as explosively formed projectiles, and other weaponry that Iran’s Shiite allies in Iraq sometimes have used to kill U.S. troops.
Suleimani’s name appears on a U.S. Treasury Department list of individuals and organizations with whom Americans are barred from doing business.
Tags: peacemaker
March 31st, 2008 at 7:06 pm
peacemaker? doesn’t that usually involve… i dunno… peace?
March 31st, 2008 at 7:56 pm
I wish, but no.
March 31st, 2008 at 8:47 pm
I can’t see how that would ever work out badly.
March 31st, 2008 at 9:37 pm
“I’m the only president ever to have articulated a two-state solution” - Because Clinton’s offer doesn’t count?http://www.zionism-israel.com/ezine/bantustans.htmIt doesn’t matter though, as long as terrorist organizations control the Palestinian people, there can’t be peace. Its sad that the extremists take control so easily…
March 31st, 2008 at 10:28 pm
There shall be no peace so long as an inch of Palestinian land continues to be occupied. Most Palestinians feel that way…and by Palestinian land, they mean by the ‘67 borders. As for Lebanon, peace will be had when Israel vacates the Golan Heights…And Israel won’t do either. Hamas won’t stop its suicide bombings and Hezbollah will continue to launch rocket attacks if Israel won’t agree. It’s a vicious circle, all the sides are equally guilty.
March 31st, 2008 at 11:18 pm
The whole situation is a positive feedback cycle. All sides respond to an attack with an even greater attack. The presence of extremists on one side makes it seem to another side that extremism is necessary. Stopping it would be like stopping an avalanche.Lasting peace may require some structural changes, aside from whatever violence people are considering adding to the mix. These structural changes- e.g. educating the Palestinians, economic diversification of oil exporters- will take time, and probably pressure/incentives from the outside, as well.I hope that people will have the patience and the will to enact these changes and slow the escalation of violence.
April 1st, 2008 at 12:09 am
That’s piecemaker.
April 1st, 2008 at 1:00 am
I’ve always thought it weird that these two groups of people - Israelis and Arabs - whose projected self-images are tied so closely to their religions, would continually desecrate what many religions consider to be some of the “holiest” land on Earth. You would think that if ever there was a peaceful patch of land that one could escape to on this planet - it would be in these “holy” lands. But alas, like so many other organized religons and groups of ultra-religous people, they really seek personal power and wealth, and dominance of their group over all others. But of course, that will get lost in the shuffle because our U.S. government will swoop in and stick their noses into yet another situation that it doesn’t belong, and in the end, the U.S. will get blamed for everything…like we always do.
April 1st, 2008 at 1:50 am
did yous guys see him tossing the saudi sheik’s salad?