How regional protests are unnerving Tehran
Demonstrations threaten Iran’s influence even as it reels from US sanctions
The day after anti-government protests erupted in Iraq, Iranian General Qasim Soleimani flew into Baghdad late at night and took a helicopter to the heavily fortified Green Zone, where he surprised a group of top security officials by chairing a meeting in place of the prime minister.
The arrival of Soleimani, the head of Iran’s elite Quds Force and the architect of its regional security apparatus, signalled Tehran’s concern over the protests, which had erupted across the capital and in Iraq’s Shiite heartland, and included calls for Iran to stop meddling in the country.
The protests in Iraq and Lebanon are fuelled by local grievances and mainly directed at political elites, but they also pose a challenge to Iran, which closely backs both the governments as well as the powerful armed groups in each country.
What has been Iran’s response to protests?
Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei urged Iraqis and Lebanese yesterday to seek their demands within the framework of the law after waves of protests rocked the two countries.
“The people of Iraq and Lebanon have some demands that are rightful, but they should know these demands can only be realised within the legal frameworks,” he said in remarks aired on state television..
He also accused the United States of being behind the protests. An increasingly violent crackdown in Iraq and an attack by Hezbollah and Amal supporters on the main protest camp in Beirut have raised fears of a backlash by Iran and its allies.
“We in Iran know how to deal with protests,” Soleimani told Iraqi officials, according to two senior officials familiar with the meeting who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the secret gathering. “This happened in Iran and we got it under control,” the officials said.
Iran violently suppressed its own pro-democracy protests, known as the Green Movement, after the disputed 2009 presidential election. The protests threaten Iran’s regional influence at a time when it is struggling under crippling US sanctions.
The day after Soleimani’s visit, the clashes between the protesters and security forces in Iraq became far more violent, with the death toll soaring past 100.
During renewed protests this week, men in black plainclothes and masks stood in front of Iraqi soldiers, facing off with protesters and firing tear gas. Residents said they did not know who they were, with some speculating they were Iranians.
“Iran is afraid of these demonstrations because it has made the most gains in the government and parliament through parties close to it” since the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, said Hisham al-Hashimi, an Iraqi analyst.
“Iran does not want to lose these gains. So it has tried to work through its parties to contain the protests.”
Has the crackdown worked?
No. The protests in Iraq resumed Friday after a brief hiatus, with protesters massing in Baghdad’s Tahrir Square and clashing with security forces.
In southern Iraq, protesters have torched the offices of political parties and governmentbacked militias allied with Iran.
In a country that is Opec’s (Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries) second-largest oil producer, impoverished residents
Iran is afraid of these protests because it has made the most gains in the government and parliament through parties close to it.”
Hisham Al Hashimi | Iraqi analyst
complain that powerful Shiite militias tied to Iran have built economic empires. “All the parties are corrupt, and this is connected to Iran, because it’s using them to try and export its system of clerical rule to Iraq,” said Ali al-Araqi, a 35-year-old protester from the town of Nasiriyah.
“The people are against this, and that is why you are seeing an uprising against Iran,” he said.
Overnight Monday, in Baghdad, protesters burned an Iranian flag. Days earlier, protesters had gathered outside the Iranian Consulate in Karbala, chanting “Iran, out, out!”
In Lebanon, hundreds of thousands of people have taken to the streets, demanding the resignation of a government dominated by pro-Iran factions.