Jamestown Releases a New Occasional Paper

Paper Titled "Iran’s Contribution to the Civil War in Iraq"

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE — January 22, 2007

WASHINGTON, DC (1/22/07)–The Jamestown Foundation has released a new Occasional Paper titled "Iran’s Contribution to the Civil War in Iraq." The paper is authored by Mounir Elkhamri, Middle East Military Analyst at the Foreign Military Studies Office at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Having recently returned from an 18-month tour in Iraq where he worked with a logistics brigade, a maneuver battalion and a Special Forces ODA team, Mounir Elkhamri brings a unique and first-hand perspective to Iran’s growing involvement in Iraq.

With the United States staged to make a major push to secure Baghdad, it is essential to understand the complexities of the civil war on the ground, more specifically Iran’s interactions with the Shiite militias and various political parties. The new paper chronicles the Iranian presence in Iraq from before the U.S. invasion to today’s reality of growing sectarian violence. By examining Iran’s regional ambitions to secure a regime that is friendly to the Islamic Republic, Mr. Elkhamri paints a vivid picture of Tehran’s byzantine meddling in Iraq.

Founded in 1984, The Jamestown Foundation is an independent, non-partisan research institution dedicated to providing timely information concerning critical political and strategic developments in China, Russia, and Eurasia. Jamestown’s research and analysis is available to the public free-of-charge via Jamestown’s website, www.jamestown.org.