Sat 29 February 2020:
In January in Vatican City, Pope Francis met with the Iraqi president, Barham Salih. The private meeting was held following the American strike on Qassem Soleimani and the Iranians’ strike on the American Ayn Al-Asad airbase in Iraq.
Since 2003, Iran sought influence in Iraq through its Shia population after they were marginalized during Saddam Hussein’s reign. This alienation gave Iran the green light to enter Iraq and become a ‘savior’ of Iraq’s Shia population, exerting its ideology and influence.
Tehran did this with ease – leveraging religious and cultural links were key to building rapport and cementing its long-term influence on Iraq’s Shia. Yet, in the wake of crippling Iraqi government corruption and complicity in Iranian intelligence operations, Iraqi Shias are joining Sunni groups and outright rejecting Iranian interference.
Nearly four months ago, an embryonic and leaderless protest movement galvanized support from both Shia and Sunni Muslims.
Several reports stated that protesters raised banners with the slogan, ‘Sunni and Shiite Brothers‘, reflecting the view that Iran is losing the support of Iraq’s Shia population. The protesters have been decrying “rampant unemployment, a lack of electricity and clean water, a collapsed economy and a corrupt political caste.”
Most critically, both Sunni and Shia have been demanding the removal of Iran’s interference in Iraq’s internal affairs.
Iran clearly appreciates that it is losing support from its traditional power base of Iraq’s Shia population. A recent protest march organized by popular pro-Iran Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr was carefully orchestrated and designed by the government to foment anti-Western sentiment and to rebuild pro-Iran attitudes.
The people of Iraq reflected a genuine desire to have a government and economy that serves the Iraqi people, and not outside interests.
However, the protests backfired on pro-Iran figureheads as the people of Iraq reflected a genuine desire to have a government and economy that serves the Iraqi people, and not outside interests.
The protests displayed strong undercurrents of resentment at the deep influence exerted by Iran in Iraq’s political affairs. One protester working for the Ministry of Trade in Baghdad suggested that, despite organizers pressuring him otherwise, he wasn’t against Americans at all – he wanted them to stay but with “contracts not troops.” He, along with his fellow citizens, don’t want foreign powers to influence his country.
Yet Iran’s influence continues to grow unabated as the details of the now notorious leaked Iran cables become clear. The cables show a continued effort by Iranian intelligence services to influence, control and even dictate the actions of Iraqi officials. Iran’s officers effectively had free reign across important institutions central to the country’s military, social and political decision-making processes.
An Iraqi journalist summarized this well when he wrote, “the American bombing is not an attack on Iraqi sovereignty, but Iranian sovereignty. For sadly there is no Iraqi sovereignty.”
Tehran would routinely ‘buy out’ Iraqi officials in an effort to control Iraq’s political narrative, establish bases in the country to expand its regional reach, and create Shia militias in Iraq. Effectively, the Iranian Ministry of Information and the Quds Force of the Revolutionary Guards were being used to run Iraq.
Unnamed sources in the Iraqi security services warned Iranian officials that both the Sunni and Shia citizens of Iraq were increasingly angry at the infringement of their national sovereignty by the US and by Iran, as the two warring sides attempt to dominate in the battleground that is Iraq.
While the US strike on Soleimani at Baghdad airport amounted to a de jure breach of Iraqi sovereignty, many Iraqis, including its Shia population, still directed their anger toward Iran. An Iraqi journalist summarized this well when he wrote, “the American bombing is not an attack on Iraqi sovereignty, but Iranian sovereignty. For sadly there is no Iraqi sovereignty.”
Indeed, when Sunni and Shia Muslims took to the streets together, Iranian trained militias and police made no distinction, shooting at and spraying demonstrators with scalding water.
After the American strike, Iraqis were left feeling somewhat vindicated. Solemeini was, after all, the mastermind and leader behind Iraq’s repressive crackdown on the earlier anti-government demonstrations, and a central figure in sowing discord between the county’s Sunnis and Shias. Indeed, when Sunni and Shia Muslims took to the streets together, Iranian trained militias and police made no distinction, shooting at and spraying demonstrators with scalding water.
The people of Iraq have every reason to demand full sovereignty and control over their nation. Foreign interference at the hands of Tehran’s intelligence services have siphoned off resources, diverted state funds, and denied the Iraqi people a prosperous economy.
To free Iraq from Iran’s grip, the Iraqi government must reject the ruling government’s corrupt practices that serve Tehran’s interests and move forward with a message of national unity. This means placing an emphasis on national sovereignty above national capitulation.
Already, groups like the Sovereignty Alliance for Iraq are emerging as effective umbrella organizations that house genuine pro-sovereignty parties. The alliance oversees several rising movements, including the anti-Iranian National Wisdom Movement led by Ammar al-Hakim, and the National Independent Iraqi Front – an organization made up of both Sunni and Shia leaders.
This political messaging, while bridging sectarian divides, can help Iraqis band together and expel Iranian influence that they say has plagued their country for so long.
The Pope’s wishes for national Iraqi sovereignty have a clear basis in reality. Free from interference and breaches of sovereignty, a united and anti-sectarian Iraq would be a welcome change for the region.
Navid Barani is a foreign affairs consultant and a freelance writer on current events with a focus on the Middle East.
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of Independent Press.
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