On December 7, 2004, “Jordanian King Abdullah said that more than 1 million Iranians have crossed the 910-mile border into Iraq, many to vote in the election–with the encouragement of the Iranian government. ‘I’m sure there’s a lot of people, a lot of Iranians in there that will be used as part of the polls to influence the outcome,’ he said in an interview. The king also charged that Iranians are paying salaries and providing welfare to unemployed Iraqis to build pro-Iranian public sentiment. Some Iranians, he added, have been trained by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and are members of militias that could fuel trouble in Iraq after the election. ‘It is in Iran’s vested interest to have an Islamic republic of Iraq…and therefore the involvement you’re getting by the Iranians is to achieve a government that is very pro-Iran,’ Abdullah said.”
– Robin Wright and Peter Baker, “Iraq, Jordan See Threat to Election from Iran,” The Washington Post, Dec. 8, 2004