The confrontation between Coalition forces and the Mahdi Army and the Iranian-trained Special Groups in Baghdad, Basra and the wider south is having some nasty consequences for the Iranian regime. The Iraqi government sent a delegation to Iran to present evidence of Iranian collusion with the Mahdi Army and other Shia terror groups attacking Iraqi civilians and U.S. and Iraqi security forces. This has shone an unwelcome light on the Iranian government’s complicity in the killing of their purported Shia brethren in Iraq. And as Bill Ardolino has reported from Baghdad, the Iraqi Shia have begun to recognize that Iran is behind for much of the violence against the Iraqi people.

But in perhaps the most surprising development, Iranian political leaders have been forced to admit that their country is responsible for the bloodshed. Former Iranian president Mohamad Khatami surprisingly criticized his country’s leadership yesterday for exporting terror to neighboring countries:

"What did Imam (Khomeini) want and what did he mean by 'exporting the revolution'? Taking up arms and causing explosions in other countries and establishing groups to carry out sabotage in other countries? Imam was strongly opposed to these behaviors," Khatami told students in northern Iran on Friday. "This is the biggest treason to Islam and the revolution."

This sparked a backlash from the Iranian regime:

"It is obvious that Mr Khatami must answer for his anti-patriotic comments and explain why he has taken such a stance," said Kayhan, whose editor-in-chief is appointed by supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei… "US media used Khatami's comments as a pretext for bringing up the US claims against Iran," it said.

Khatami’s statements also sparked a debate about the legitimacy of suicide bombings:

"Mr Khatami has not differentiated between the criminal acts of the Taliban and the martyr operations of Lebanon's Hezbollah or Muslim fighters in Palestine," Mehdi Kouchakzadeh [a member of parliament] was quoted as saying. "Mr Khatami has to make it clear whether using fervent martyrdom-seeking young men to combat occupiers is an ugly and violent act or a fully human and admirable one?" demanded the MP.

So we now have an influential Iranian cleric and politician [who is by no means the moderate he is portrayed to be] openly stating his country is behind terror attacks and the Iranian establishment having to defend itself in the domestic and foreign media.