It is a week now since Iraqis headed to polls in the first parliamentary elections since the defeat of Daesh — a vote that handed a surprise victory to the bloc that supports populist cleric Moqtada Al Sadr, a Shiite unaligned with Iran. He has campaigned on a platform of Iraq for Iraqis, a nationalist stance that tapped into public resentment over corruption, lack of proper facilities, power outages and huge social disparities.
Last year’s victory over Daesh was largely only possibly by the intervention of militias armed and supported by Iran, and the regime in Iran remains eager to continue to hold influence and sway over its troubled neighbour.
Even with the bloc headed by Al Sadr gaining victory, there now comes word that Iranian Major General Qassem Sulaimani — the commander of foreign operations for the Revolutionary Guard — has been in Baghdad since Wednesday to hold talks to promote the formation of a new Iraqi Cabinet that would meet Iran’s priorities. He is holding talks with rival Shiite politicians to form a rival coalition, one that would be both malleable and ductile for Tehran’s bidding.
The final results of the election are expected any day now. Formal talks on setting up a governing coalition will then begin. What’s worrying is that before the election, the regime in Tehran had publicly said it would not allow Al Sadr’s bloc — an unlikely alliance of Shiites, Communists and other secular groups — to govern should they win. With that prospect now firmly on the table, Soleimani’s presence clearly shows that Tehran is intent on following up on that stated intent.
Iran’s continued efforts to control and shape the form of the next government in Iraq is clear indication that it has no intent of letting the people of Iraq control their own affairs. If anything, it is certainly disingenuous and serves to undermine the fragile state of democracy in Iraq, one that has been battered by the torrid and turbulent events of these past four years and beyond.
Indeed, given the results of the recent elections in Lebanon, Tehran clearly has an agenda of holding sway in that nation’s parliamentary and political processes, and it is repeating that pattern now in Iraq.
For too long, too many outside influences have swayed events in Iraq. It’s certainly time now that the votes of all Iraqis be respected, with Iraqis governing for themselves, by themselves.
