Iran Stirs Up More Trouble in Iraq With Dubious Media Report

On Thursday there was a bogus story from Iraq published by the Associated Press. The report claimed that the moderate Ayatollah Sistani in Iraq had issued a fatwa, or religious edict, encouraging Iraqis to kill US soldiers.

This was totally out of character for the moderate Shiite cleric who has been very supportive of the democratic process in Iraq since the fall of the Hussein regime.

Sure enough, the Iraqi media later announced that the AP report was not accurate:

“The reports of issuing fatwa by the Shiite cleric Sistani permiting taking up arms to drive foreign troops out of Iraq were baseless.”

Iraqi-American Nibras Kazimi suspected that the Iranian PSY-OPS teams were behind the AP’s story.

Today the radical Iranian Regime came out with another report against Ayatollah Sistani.
Iran Press TV reported:

Iraq’s most revered Shia cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani has strongly objected to a ‘security accord’ between the US and Iraq.

The Grand Ayatollah has reiterated that he would not allow Iraq to sign such a deal with “the US occupiers” as long as he was alive, a source close to Ayatollah Sistani said.

The source added the Grand Ayatollah had voiced his strong objection to the deal during a meeting with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in the holy city of Najaf on Thursday.

The remarks were made amid reports that the Iraqi government might sign a long-term framework agreement with the United States, under which Washington would be allowed to set up permanent military bases in the country and US citizens would be granted immunity from legal prosecution in the country.

While the mainstream media keep mum about the accord, critics say the agreement would virtually put Iraq under the US tutelage and violate the country’s sovereignty.

The source added Ayatollah Sistani, however, backed PM al-Maliki’s government and its efforts and that of the nation to establish security in the country.

Keep in mind, that report comes from the regime in Iran.
The article in the Iraqi Press about the Sistani and Maliki meeting did not include the information that Sistani rejected a US-Iraq security accord.

What was reported at Aswat Aliraq was that US Ambassador Crocker is in negotiations with the Iraqi government on long term strategic plans:

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and U.S. President George W. Bush signed in early November 2007 an agreement on strategic partnership between the two countries, sanctioning a long-term U.S. military presence in Iraq to protect it from “foreign threats” and maintain its internal stability.

Talabani and Crocker also discussed recent developments on the return of the Sunni Iraqi Accordance Front ministers to the government and re-formation of a national unity government.

TIME Magazine also did not report on the Maliki-Sistani meeting this way (and you know they would have if they could have):

“Sistani emphasized that everything should be done to get back total sovereignty on all levels,” said Sheik Abdul Mehdi al-Karbala’e, who summed up Sistani’s meeting with Maliki in a speech to Shi’ite follower attending Friday prayers in Karbala.

The comment was a not-so-subtle warning by Sistani to Maliki and American leaders as they negotiate a long-term bilateral agreement that will spell out conditions for a U.S. presence in Iraq beyond next year, when the current U.N. mandate ends. A number of contentious issues, such as the presence of permanent U.S. military bases and the ability of U.S. forces to arrest and detain Iraqis, remain unresolved.

The news that Ayatollah Sistani would not allow an accord between the US and Iraq did not make the Iraqi news.

Iranian websites insist it is true.
(The Iranian regime can hope that it is true, anyway.)
But, most likely it is just the Iranian regime again trying to meddle with the democracy of Iraq.

Jihad Watch has more thoughts.

Previously:
Busted!!… Iraqi Press Denies AP Report On Ayatollah Sistani
It Was a Bogus Story 2 Days Ago… But, Who Cares?… TIME Mag Throws It Out There Anyway

Previously on Ayatollah Sistani:
Iraq’s Spiritual Leader Calls for Unity & the Disarming of Militias
Real Developments in Iraq
Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani Expresses Solidarity with Pope!
Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani Calls For Peace & Unity in Iraq
Largest Iraqi Shiite Party Splits With Iran
Ayatollah Ali Sistani Blasts Foreign Media For Bogus Reporting!!
Sistani urges Shiites to protect Sunni Iraqis

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Jim Hoft is the founder and editor of The Gateway Pundit, one of the top conservative news outlets in America. Jim was awarded the Reed Irvine Accuracy in Media Award in 2013 and is the proud recipient of the Breitbart Award for Excellence in Online Journalism from the Americans for Prosperity Foundation in May 2016. In 2023, The Gateway Pundit received the Most Trusted Print Media Award at the American Liberty Awards.

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