[1] Senior administration officials said the new policy was based on the theory that Iran would back down from its nuclear ambitions if the United States hit it hard in Iraq and elsewhere, creating a sense of vulnerability among Iranian leaders.
[9] The head of the Iranian parliament's Foreign Policy and Security Commission said he hoped the report was "wrong, as such an order is a clear terrorist act and against all internationally acknowledged norms."
The Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki blamed U.S. President Bush for the order, saying in a press conference, that "as far as Iraq is concerned, Iran is not a problem but part of solving it.
[12] On January 20, 2007, Mohammad Ali Jafari, then-commander-in-chief of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, declared that "The United States seeks to justify its failure in Iraq and blame the situation on Iran.
[18] Officials counseled the U.S. President and his direct advisers to consider all potential consequences, including the possibility that the Iranian government may retaliate by increasing its efforts to hinder, detain, or kill U.S. forces in Iraq.