Publication

Iran is actively assisting major Shiite Muslim political factions in Iraq, most of which have longstanding ideological, political, and religious ties to Tehran. A more pressing U.S. concern is that Iran is arming these faction’s militias, which are committing sectarian violence and attacking U.S. forces. In late 2007, the Administration noted a decrease in Iranian weapons shipments, but there is debate in the Administration over whether this was driven by U.S. policy toward Iran, including diplomacy, or an Iranian re-evaluation of its own strategy in Iraq.