Yesterday, Saturday, the researcher in Iranian affairs, Mojtaba Haidari , denied Tehran’s relationship with the Iraqi resistance factions, indicating that the decision to dissolve them is an Iraqi choice, but as long as the resistance exists, Iran will continue to support them .
Haidari said, “The decision to dissolve the factions is not known to be implemented. Basically, the resistance is self-sufficient in Iraq and Iran has no relationship with it. Rather, it supports the resistance, but it was not the one who founded it. Therefore, Iran sees that this is an Iraqi choice, and as long as the resistance exists, Iran will support it .”
He added, “Successive Iraqi governments were asking Iran – given its good relationship with the resistance factions – to intervene and talk to them to reduce the tension, especially in the issue of targeting American forces in Iraq, and Iran understood those demands .”
Haidari explained that “Tehran realizes that the stability of Baghdad will also help it, in light of the internal problems and the siege on it, so the security of Iraq will affect Iran positively, but if problems occur in Iraq, this will affect it negatively .”
He stressed that “the issue of the factions is linked to Iraq and not to Iran. It is an Iraqi choice, and in light of the events taking place now, it is unlikely that anyone will demand the dissolution of the factions, especially in light of the dangers facing Iraq, and everyone knows these dangers and the seriousness of the situation. Therefore, the Iraqis themselves will support the resistance .”
For days, news has been circulating in the Iraqi arena that change is coming to Baghdad, after the fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria. This coincided with the disclosure of details of the meeting of US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken with al-Sudani in Baghdad, and his demand to dissolve the factions and hand over their weapons to the state, and to limit Iran’s influence in Iraq .
Former Deputy Prime Minister Bahaa al-Araji, who is close to the current Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, said that “the fear of security or political events and developments in Iraq during the coming period is far from reality, especially since there are those who want to ignite internal strife to promote events that cannot happen in Iraq, especially on the security and military levels .”
Al-Araji pointed out that “the Popular Mobilization Forces are an official Iraqi institution that has a legal law, and the talk about calls to dissolve the Mobilization Forces is false news. As for the armed factions, the decision regarding them, whether to dismantle them or otherwise, is taken exclusively by the Iraqi state. It is an internal Iraqi issue, and those with the solution and reason are the ones who decide whether those factions will remain or not. Even the factions themselves, their existence is dependent on the presence of the occupation. If this reason does not exist, then there will certainly be no armed factions.”
