The Iraqi Shiite government is fighting back against the illegal practices of the Iranian Shiite regime.
Iraqi-American Haider Ajina sends the following article from Voices of Iraq:
Shiites Maintain Strong Nationalistic Ties to Iraq
Wednesday , 07 /05 /2008 Time 10:24:36Baghdad, May 7, (VOI)- Iraqi ambassador in Washington said on Wednesday that the majority of Iraqi Shiites maintain strong nationalistic ties to Iraq, noting that they in fact present a threat to the Iranian state rather than the other way around.
Iraq’s ambassador to the U.S. said that a high-level committee will investigate Iran’s role in arms trafficking across his country’s borders, after the discovery of large caches of weapons and explosive devices recently. “It’s a bit disingenuous to believe such quantities of up-to-date weapons manufactured this year, last year, can flow into the country without the knowledge of the Iranian government,” Ambassador Samir Sumaida’ie told editors and reporters at The Washington Times.
“However, I understand that the prime minister ordered the formation of the committee only in the last 48 hours to put facts together, to establish where the connection is between these weapons and evidence of training so that we can basically confront our Iranian neighbors,” he said…
“U.S. counterterrorism officials said Iran has increased weapons supplies in recent months, adding that the Iranian government wants to diminish U.S. and Iraqi coalition efforts in the region,” The Washington Times reported.
“There continues to be a disturbing flow of arms from Iran to Iranian-backed groups inside of Iraq and there are some indications that the flow is increasing,” the paper quoted counterterrorism official as saying.
Mr. Sumaida’ie said that, despite an eight-year war with Iran during the 1980s under the Sunni-dominated regime of Saddam Hussein, the current Iraqi Shiite militias — and specifically anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr — have formed close ties with Tehran.
But he said the majority of Shiites in his country maintain strong nationalistic ties to Iraq.
“In fact, the Iraqi Shiite presents a threat to the Iranian state rather than the other way around,” he said.
“Mr. Sumaida’ie said that a warrant for the arrest of Sheik al-Sadr in 2004 may have avoided the current militia uprising. He said the United States was only moments away from arresting Sheik al-Sadr when “somebody in Washington got cold feet(?)” it said.
Haider Ajina comments:
This was an interesting statement from the Iraqi ambassador. Paul Bremer refers to the arrest warrant for Muqtada in his book. I agree that Iraqi Shiites can become a stronger influence on Iran than Iranians can on Iraq in the long run. Iraqi Shiites consider them selves the original Shiite. They host the major schools for the study and the Hauza is in Nejaf (Grand school of the grand Ayatollah). Nejaf and Karbala are the Vatican of the Shiites. In the past and now Iranian Shiites look to Nejaf (IRAQ) for religious guidance and if there is a conflict between instruction from Nejaf and Qum (IRAN) Nejaf will be considered the higher authority.
A number of Iranian references who disagree with Iran’s government have sought refuge in Nejaf to escape harassment and in some cases persecution.
While hindsight is always 20/20 we should also learn from it. Just like when Bin Ladin was offered to us and we did not take him. Muqtada could have been stopped early. In the Middle East early courageous decisive action is needed when dealing with unreasonable individuals with demonic vision. If there is a main trait that middle easterners have (it is my place of origin) it is to wait and wait out whom you are trying to deal with.
Regards
Haider Ajina
