FORT TARIQ, Iraq, 10 May 2006 — Fifty Iraqi soldiers clad in olive fatigues and black berets patrol this dusty desert border area with Iran night and day, knowing the situation could heat up at any time. Tensions are high as the United States and its archfoe Tehran engage in a game of brinkmanship over Iran’s nuclear program. Iraq finds itself caught between its eastern neighbor and America, which invaded the country in 2003. Last week, Iran shelled bases of separatist Turkish Kurdish guerrillas in northern Iraq.
Iran and Iraq have previously battled over their 1,400-kilometer border. From 1980-1988, Iran and Iraq fought a bloody conflict that left more than a million dead and scarred both countries. Here at Fort Tariq, life is tranquil, if not listless in the scorching May heat. Border towers shoot up in the desert and the sun’s glare reflects off the binoculars of Iraqi and Iranian guards.
US officials have accused Iran of sending sophisticated bomb models to Iraq’s insurgents across the shared border of mountains, desert and waterways where the Arab and Persian worlds meet. “We are very concerned about this border. The capabilities of IEDs (improvised explosive device) we are facing today are very different than in March 2004 when I first came here,” said Lt. Gen. Peter Chiarelli, the number two US commander in Iraq. “Whenever these components come, we have to stop their flow.”
The US-trained Iraqi guards on the porous border have reported an increase in arrests from Iran since the start of the year. “They arrested about 2,000 people since January 2006, which is more than during the whole of 2005 when only 1,500 people were arrested,” said Col. Serguei Polyakov, a Ukrainian adviser for the guards in Wasit province.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister-designate Nuri Al-Maliki said yesterday that the lineup for country’s first permanent government of the post-Saddam era was almost ready, after months of tortuous negotiations.
“We will finalize the Cabinet today or tomorrow and will present the new government to the parliament this week,” he told reporters in Baghdad.
