Iran’s Ex-Envoy Sees Suspicious Movements behind Recent Protests in Iraq
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – A former Iranian ambassador to Iraq underlined that some suspicious movements in Iraq are involved in illegal activities under the guise of popular protests, adding that they seek to cause chaos in the Arab country.
“What we are witnessing in the protests are some (provocative) measures that were taken under the guise of popular protests…,” Hassan Kazemi Qomi said in an interview with the Tasnim News Agency on Tuesday.
There is information indicating that some embassies, whose countries have always supported terrorism in Iraq, have played a major role in provoking the popular protests, he noted.
The Iranian former diplomat went on to say that the slogans chanted in the protests were at first against corruption in the Iraqi government but later they turned out to be against ruling political groups and religious leadership.
According to the reports, the embassies of the US, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar in Baghdad have made a series of clandestine contacts with dismissed Iraqi officials to provoke unrest in the Arab nation and undermine its political processes concurrent with some civil protests.
A recent report by Saudi newspaper Okaz said the US embassy in Baghdad and the intelligence services of a number of the Arab littoral countries of the Persian Gulf have begun to support Iraqi secular politicians to exploit the demonstrations taking place in the Arab country.
Among the major target figures in the ploy are dismissed vice presidents of Iraq, Ayad Allawi and Osama al-Nujaifi, as well as fired deputy prime minister, Saleh al-Mutlaq, the report added.
According to informed sources, the US embassy is well aware that the demonstrators only demand better civil services and a more serious fight against corruption, but Washington has plans to misuse the protests to “sow sedition, create chaos and derail the political processes” in Iraq.
The main purpose behind all of these plots is said to be undermining the voluntary forces’ performance in the battle against the ISIL terrorist group and cutting Iraq’s links with the axis of anti-Israeli resistance in Syria, Lebanon and Iran.
