|
Commentary
by U.S. Alliance for Democratic Iran
The
Anti-Tehran Awakening in Iraq
As Washington prepares itself for the fourth
round of talks with Iran about the security
situation in Iraq, there are encouraging reports
from Iraq indicating some huge setbacks for
Tehran in Iraq particularly in the streets of
Shiite-dominated areas where it most matters.
Increasingly, the Iranian regime is being seen
as public enemy No. 1 by non-sectarian and
nationalist Iraqis of all political, social,
religious and ethnic background.
To be sure there is no question about Tehran’s
innate capacity for bloodshed and savagery. This
fact was underlined again on Tuesday when a UN
body passed a resolution condemning the Iranian
regime for the "confirmed instances" of "torture
and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or
punishment, including flogging and amputations"
in Iran. Iraq and Iraqis have been the equal
opportunity recipients of the mullahs’ export of
terror and destruction.
Iran has been and continues to be the primary
beneficiary of the sectarian conflict in Iraq
since it hinders the efforts of Shiite, Sunni,
and Kurdish political leaders to form a
democratic national unity government in Iraq.
Tehran’s fear that its cronies will be facing
stiff and deserving resistance from Iraqis are
well-placed.
In a declaration published in the influential
Iraqi daily Azzaman, the coordination
committee of four major nationalist political
parties affirmed that the current political
confrontation in Iraq is neither religious nor
sectarian, but a political and strategic duel
over security and democracy in Iraq between
Tehran-sponsored Iraqi sectarian entities and
all the democratic and nationalist Iraqi groups
and individuals.
The committee which includes the non-sectarian
heavy weights such as Iraqi National Accord, the
Iraqi National Dialogue Front, the Iraqi
People’s Congress, and the Iraqi National
Dialogue Council, underscored that “we consider
the measures taken by the Nuri Al-Maliki’s
government to exert pressure on its opponents -
accusing the Iraqi National List and its
chairman of terrorism, sacking those ministers
belonging to the National Accord, and submission
to Iranian regime’s pressures on its opposition
based in Iraq (MEK) – are aimed at thwarting
efforts to modify the Constitution which, in its
current shape, is in conflict with the national
reconciliation and the rule of law.”
Meanwhile reports from Shiite areas of Iraq
point to a strategically significant reality
underlying the political, social and ideological
dynamics of the Shiite majority in Iraq: The
goals and aspirations of majority of Iraqi
Shiites are secular, nationalist, and democratic
in nature and opposed to those pursued by the
Tehran’s Shiite proxies in the majority block
ruling Iraq.
According to Reuters, more than 300,000 Iraqis
from the Shiite-dominated southern provinces,
including 600 Shiite tribal leaders have signed
a petition charging Tehran with fomenting
"disorder" in southern Iraq. This historic
statement says that the signatories “condemned
the interference of the Iranian regime in Iraq
and especially in spreading security disorder in
the provinces."
The Washington Post reports from Iraq that this
“unusually organized Iraqi rebuke” is “being
supported by the People's Mujaheddin
Organization of Iran, or Mujaheddin-e Khalq.” It
adds that the petition which “echoes repeated
pronouncements by U.S. officials that Iran has
been instigating violence in Iraq,” calls on the
United Nations to send a delegation to
investigate what it termed crimes committed by
Iran and its proxies in southern Iraq.
"The most painful stab in the back of the
Shiites in Iraq by the Iranian regime has been
its shameful abuse of Shiite religion to achieve
its ominous end," the sheiks said a statement.
"The only solution and hopeful prospect for
Iraq, and in particular the southern provinces,
is the eviction of the Iranian regime from our
homeland."
Not surprisingly, the growing maturation of the
cross-religious, cross-ethnic non-sectarian
democratic front has been coupled by its
increasingly public endorsement of the Iranian
Mojahedin based in Iraq. And this is yet another
feature of this fast growing anti-Tehran
coalition in Iraq whose strategic implications
must be appreciated and acted upon by
Washington.
Last month, in an interview with Azzaman
daily, Ayad Allawi, the former Iraq prime
minister and leader of the Iraqi National
Accord, emphasized the legitimacy of the
continued presence of the Mojahedin in Iraq.
Allawi added that the MEK, as a political
movement, is partly in Iraq with limitations in
their activities, another part in Iran, and a
part in all over the world and eviction or
expulsion of the Mojahedin has no place in Iraqi
values or principles.
Allawi’s sentiments were echoed by the Iraqi
Vice-President, Tariq Al-Hashemi, who told the
Al-Horrieh TV network affiliated to the
Patriotic Front of Iraqi Kurdistan, that "the
presence of the Iranian Mojahedin in Iraq is
based on the international conventions
recognizing members of the organization as
political refugees."
The Iraqis - Shiites, Sunnis, and Kurds alike -
are the primary casualties of a sectarian
conflict and a divided Iraq. The non-sectarian
and nationalist front offers a viable way out of
Iraqi political impasse which is hugely
benefiting Tehran. Washington must act to
further empower this coalition and its Iranian
component, the Mojahedin; it is a strategic
imperative. The alternative is Tehran’s
irreversible dominance of Iraq.
(USADI)
USADI
Commentary reflects the viewpoints of the US Alliance
for Democratic Iran in respect to issues and events
which directly or indirectly impact the US policy toward
Iran |