Has Iran declared war on the U.S.????

Clayton Cramer has posted a very interesting piece about Iran.

The previous day, Iranian sources had statements on the same issue. At a ceremony marking the four-year anniversary of Israel's withdrawal from southern Lebanon, reformist MP and Secretary-General of the International Committee for the Support of the Palestinian Intifada Ali Akbar Makhatashemi-Pour called on Muslim countries to open their borders with Iraq to troops of Muslim martyrdom bombers. "We, the Muslim countries, must create a storm front against the U.S. and Israel. The half-million member organization that was created in Beirut [i.e., Hizbullah] is not sufficient. Many young Muslims are willing to carry out martyrdom operations against the American Crusaders." [3]

The Iranian reformist paper Sharq reported that the Persian-language Ruydad website stated that Hizbullah-Iran activist Forouz Rajaii-Far said that "martyrdom operations are the only option to expel the Americans and British from Iraq," and that a Basij activist from Elm Vasonaat University in Iran acknowledged that a group calling itself the "To Karbala Battalion" was sent on May 27, 2004 to Karbala to fight the coalition forces. [4]

[3] Sharq (Iran), May 27, 2004. http://www.sharghnewspaper.com/830307/gover.htm

[4] Sharq (Iran), May 27, 2004. http://www.sharghnewspaper.com/830307/gover.htm. The Basij is an Iranian paramilitary youth volunteer organization involved in anti-reformist operations.

Clayton doesn't have anyone fluent in Arabic who can check out the sources. My father in law tells me that the links are actually in Farsi which he is fluent in, but that he can't really read Arabic. I don't have anyone here in Chattanooga who can either, though I have a neighbor who does this kind of thing for a living as a defense intelligence contrator. I've passed the links along to him and will post his response when I get it.