Iran wants to turn Iraq into another Lebanon
The visit of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani to Baghdad this week — the first since he took office six years ago — comes as US imposed sanctions start to pinch the Iranian economy. In its bid to circumvent the sanctions, is Tehran trying to turn Iraq into an Iranian satellite?
Tehran succeeded in entering the Iraqi arena following the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime. Since then, it has participated in marginalising the US presence through its support to armed groups. Iran now intends to turn Iraq into another ‘banana republic’, just like Lebanon; subsequently exploiting it with the recruitment of militants who would fight on its behalf around the world, as they are currently doing in Syria under General Qassem Soleimani’s command. It also wants Iraq to become its financial agent, funding Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Bashar Al Assad’s Syrian government with billions of dollars.
It would suit Iranian interests if Iraq becomes a weak state like Lebanon, governed by militias like Asa’ib Ahl Al Haq. However, Iraq is a big country that has its own interests and aspirations, which are incompatible with the interests and ideas of the extremist religious regime in Tehran.
Furthermore, Iran is under siege, while Iraq is open to the world. Today, Iraq enjoys its best relations with the global community since 1990, and is in a transitional phase of development that will drive it to become one of the wealthiest countries in the region. It can play an independent, sovereign, and free role without being subservient or subordinate to any other country.
Iran would have escaped the hardships had it agreed to abandon its nuclear project and stopped exporting chaos and rebellions, as well as its foreign military interventions. So why should the Iraqis pay for Tehran’s extremist policies?
Tehran is now more besieged than ever: Its oil tankers are abandoned in the middle of oceans, it cannot use the US dollar when selling its carpets, pistachios, and vegetables, and has been deserted even by China and Russia, the two countries it was counting on in its preparations for the confrontation with the US. Indeed, Iran was not forced to fight these battles; rather its regime has chosen to play the role of the villain in the region, which is why it is facing this situation and a siege like the one Saddam faced in the past.
Iraqis must realise what is going on is an international battle, and they will lose all that they have achieved since stability and state authority returned to Baghdad.
Rouhani, Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif, Soleimani, and all Iran’s senior officials who have visited Baghdad want Iraq to become a subordinate satellite state. Lebanon is a clear example, as it has been fighting and suffering on behalf of Iran since the 1980s. Iraq will not be luckier than the current, divided Lebanon if it falls under Iranian control.