From today's Post comes news that Abdel Aziz al-Hakim, the Iraqi leader of SIIC, says that he doesn't believe Iran is helping rebels in Iraq:

Also Sunday, Iraq's most influential Shiite politician, Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, said the United States needed to back up its claims that Iran is fomenting violence inside Iraq, which Iran has denied. The U.S. military has accused an Iranian-backed Shiite cell in Friday's market bombing.

"These are only accusations raised by the multinational forces, and I think these accusations need more proof," Hakim, leader of the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, told reporters.

Hakim, of course, is Iran's closest ally in Iraq, and he just returned from getting treatment for lung cancer in Tehran. SIIC has long blamed Al Qaeda for everything bad that happens in Iraq, so it isn't surprising that he'd want to protect his patron and shift the blame onto AQI for the recent bombing. It's true that the United States hasn't provided much proof of Iranian involvement in the latest attack. But it seems that Hakim is addressing more than just that one bombing, putting him at odds with many (even in the Maliki government) who blame Iran for some of Iraq's troubles.

There is more from AP. Hakim added that Iran has long acted as a friend of Iraq, forgetting that in the 1970s the Shah of Iran armed Kurdish rebels against Baghdad with CIA support, and that in the 1980s Ayatollah Khomeini sought to topple Iraq's government and replace it with a Shiite theocracy headed by, well, Hakim. Said Hakim: "They have a long history of standing by the Iraqi people and that is their official stance that is presented to the press without any hesitation."