Zarif: Iraqis Wise Enough to Not Let Opportunist Abuse Their Legitimate Demands

“The officials of the Islamic Republic of Iran believe that the people of Iraq are so sharp that they will never allow others to take advantage of their legitimate complaints which are approved by the government of Iraq,” Zarif said, touching upon the last week unrest in the Arab country.

He added that Tehran believes that the Iraqis are the owners of their country, underlining that their rights must be observed.

Demonstrations and street protests began on Tuesday October 01.

Although some in Iraq are trying to frame the protests as a popular and independent movement without a political leader, there are several indications showing that they are certainly not spontaneous; the unstable living and economic situation that has been introduced as the cause of the protests is not a new, unprecedented and one-off phenomenon that could lead to a burst of public anger in Iraq.

Qais Khazali, the Leader of Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq Resistance Movement, revealed, in a press conference more than a month ago on August 26, that some political fractions in Iraq in a joint endeavor with some foreign powers are getting prepared for igniting demonstrations, because they are unhappy with Iraq’s current foreign policy.

“The problem is the ‘Deal of the Century’. They are after making the current administration abide by their demands…. Accordingly, we will witness new demonstrations in Iraq. The demonstrations are scheduled to begin in the tenth month (October). If you liked, record these words of mine. This is not my analysis; it is the information and intelligence I have. They also start with social media to pretend it is public opinion, but in reality they are being led by foreigners,” he said.

Meantime, Lebanon’s al-Akhbar newspaper disclosed that Saudi Arabia had handed a plot to the administration of US President Donald Trump to stir unrest in Tehran, Baghdad and Beirut. It shows that the three countries of Iran, Iraq and Lebanon are the main targets of the project which is aimed at stimulating the public opinion through the media in order to instigate street protests which would finally weaken the central government.

Al-Akhbar newspaper went on adding that After Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman managed to coerce Head of MBC’s television network Walid Ibrahim to give in part of the shares of the MBC, through putting him behind the jail, bin Salman gained control over the MBC’s board of directors, injected $100 million into the network to spend it against target audience in Lebanon, Iraq and Iran. Many may have not noticed that there were several rallies in Lebanon concurrent with protests in Iraq, but they failed to attract attention similar to what demonstrations in Iraq did. This remarkable synchronization will be noted by shrewd analysts.

On Tuesday, Al-Akhbar reported that sources close to the Iraqi prime minister disclosed shared efforts by the Israeli Mossad spy agency and the US embassy to channel the recent protests in Iraq towards violence.

“Based on the precise security intelligence collected in the past few days, the Israeli intelligence service along with agents hired by the US embassy in Baghdad used the popular protests in Iraq and led the peaceful rallies towards chaos and sabotage acts,” the paper quoted unnamed sources privy to the Iraqi premier as saying.

It added that foreigners’ interference changed the path of protests and the nature of slogans which called for overthrowing Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi’s government.

The sources also underlined the important role of the foreign news channels and social media users in pouring oil to the fuel of violent protests through their unprecedented coverage of the incidents in Iraq.

In relevant remarks on Saturday, a prominent Iranian analyst of international issues said that the Saudi, Israeli and British media are attempting to magnify the recent unrests in Iraq while the Iraqi cities are in full security.

“The Zionist enemy in collaboration with Britain and Saudi Arabia as well as their affiliated media and even the Wahhabis in the region are attempting to leave a negative impact on the Arbaeen walk through protests under economic pretexts,” Hamid Reza Taraqqi told FNA.

He added that the Saudi and British media try to exaggerate the incidents and gatherings in Iraq to deter Arbaeen pilgrims’ travel to the country.

“This is while calm is prevailing in Iraq and its cities are in full security,” Taraqqi said.