Iran MP: US scheme in Iraq has flopped

Iranian lawmaker Mohammad Karim Shahrzad says the United States has failed in its scheme to take control of Iraq following the invasion of the country in 2003.

“The US impression was that with the fall of [executed dictator] Saddam Hussein’s rule and [through] the occupation of Iraq they would be able to take control of the country and plunder its oil, which was foiled by the resistance from the Iraqi nation,” IRNA quoted Shahrzad as saying on Wednesday.

“What this US military action brought about was intervention in the constitutional structure of Iraq and that they started killing innocent Iraqis to gain power,” he added.

“Unfortunately, they were able to take control in the country at a stage,” Shahrzad acknowledged but assured that “the Iraqi nation will force the occupiers to leave in the long run.”

The MP said the Iraqi nation, like the Lebanese, need to move in line with their national interest to make the US agree to their demand of withdrawing its forces from their country’s soil.

He attributed a recent agreement on a power-sharing deal among Iraq’s bickering political parties to a need they feel for reconstruction and reform, and solidarity and stability in the country.

“The Iraqi nation need peace and construction and the people should force the occupiers out of their land with the help of the government,” he said.

Shahrzad warned that “the occupiers in Afghanistan and Iraq” are seeking to marginalize and isolate the Islamic Republic by means of military presence and to take control of the region.

“They are just after limiting nuclear power and technology exclusively to themselves and prevent others from development,” he warned.