US/UK Military Forces Massing on Iranian Border

In a dispatch posted at 12 noon Makkah time Friday, <>Mafkarat al-Islam<> reported that US and British forces have been heading towards the Iranian border east of the city of al-Basrah in southern Iraq, according to eyewitnesses.

The correspondent for Mafkarat al-Islam reported residents along the Shatt al-‘Arab waterway report that US and British heavy military equipment has been moved up towards the border and that air patrols by American war planes have been increased in order to intensify reconnaissance of the frontier.

Residents of al-Basrah told Mafkarat al-Islam that the offices of pro-Iranian Shi‘i parties in the city have been distributing arms to their members. The sources say that most of the weapons being distributed come from Iran and were smuggled over the border to the southern cities of al-Basrah and al-‘Amarah.

The moves come against a backdrop of escalating US pressure on Iran over the issue of that country’s right to develop peaceful nuclear energy, a right guaranteed under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty to which Iran is signatory. Washington and its satellites in NATO are taking the position that Iran, despite the wording of the treaty, should have no such right.

Local observers doubt that the US is preparing a strike against Iran. It is thought, rather, that the US and Britain on one side and Iran on the other are escalating activities against each other on Iraqi soil as a form of applying pressure to each other.(Emphasis added)www.albasrah.net/en_articles_2006/0406/iraqiresistancereport_280406.htm

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Last updated 01/05/2006

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