US Accuses Iran of Planning to Retaliate for Syrian War

Iran Has 'A Lot of Shia Friends,' Officials Insist

Continuing to plan for a US attack on Syria that won’t get Congressional backing and that the American public is broadly opposed to, officials have accused Iran of “planning to retaliate” against US interests if the US starts an aggressive war against Syria, a close ally of Iran.

Officials are claiming to have “intercepts” from Iran ordering Shi’ite militias inside Iraq to plan such strikes, noting that Iran has “a lot of Shia friends” around the region.

Oddly, while officials are hyping this putative intelligence to the US press, and saying that the target is likely that huge, city-sized US Embassy in Baghdad, the US State Department has confirmed that they have taken no action to shore up security at the embassy, nor any other sites inside Iraq.

Administration officials have recently centered the case for war on Syria on the idea that the attack would really stick it to Iran, and would convince Iran that 30-some years of US threats to launch a war against Iran on similarly shaky grounds would be more realistic.

The “threat” of Iranian retaliation is being used as an excuse to dramatically escalate US military presence in the region, and officials promised to respond to any moves by either Syria, Iran, or anyone else with more force.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.