Return of the Prodigal!

By: Kayhan Int’l

The recent visit to Iran of a prominent Iraqi religious leader and his participation in the mourning ceremony in Tehran on the Day of Ashura for Martyrs of the Tragedy of Karbala, while seated next to the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, with the Commander of the elite Qods Force sitting beside him, seems to have surprised, if not shocked, the US, Israel and the reactionary Arab regimes.
For the Islamic Republic of Iran and the revolutionary people of Iraq, as well as for the Resistance Front in the whole region, there was no element of surprise in Hojjat al-Islam Seyyed Moqtada as-Sadr’s warm reception by Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, and the place allotted to him at the VIP platform beside Major-General Qassem Soleimani.
The message was loud and clear. The pictures of the gathering published by the official websites of the two fraternal and friendly countries, indicates that Iran and Iraq attach special importance to their national sovereignty, territorial integrity, cultural affinity, political practicability, economic homogeneity, and religious solidarity.
It means both the neighbours share identical views on the peace, security, stability, and independence of the entire region, which should be cleared of all vestiges of terrorism, including the illegal presence of CENTCOM terrorists.
Sadr, whom the western and Arab media had portrayed as a prodigal, ready to sacrifice Iraq’s independence by drifting away from his roots for a few favours from the Persian Gulf sheikhdoms and his former enemy, the US, has made all calculations go awry by visiting Iran at the right time and choosing the Ashura occasion to announce his unity with the Resistance Front.
Whether Washington, the Zionist entity and the heretical Wahhabi clique of Riyadh likes it or not, Iraq and its various popular forces, including those led by Sadr who heads the largest parliamentary bloc in Baghdad, are one and the same.
They share the same views as Lebanon’s legendary anti-terrorist movement, the Hezbollah, or for that matter the heroic Ansarallah of Yemen, and the Palestinian liberation groups.
All these independent minded forces take inspiration from the Islamic Republic of Iran, since Tehran continues to steadfastly adhere to the timeless movement of Imam Husain (AS), the grandson of Prophet Muhammad (SAWA).
In other words, the Resistance Forces consider Seyyed Moqtada Sadr among the pillars of the regional movement against American imperialism, Zionism and Arab reactionaries, side by side with Hezbollah Secretary General Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah and Ansarallah Leader Seyyed Abdul-Malik Badreddin al-Houthi.
No wonder, Trump, Netanayahu and the Saudis are already beginning to see their dreams of dominating the region turning into nightmares.

Fraternal Iran-Iraq Ties Frustrate US-Saudi-Zionist Designs

By: S. Nawabzadeh

Although speaking different languages, no two countries in the world are bonded together by such close historical, cultural and religious ties, dating back several centuries, if not millennia, as Iran and Iraq.

As a matter of fact, the fraternity between the peoples of the Iranian Plateau and Mesopotamia has withstood the test of time, including almost three-and-a-half intermittent centuries of Ottoman occupation of Iraq followed by the anti-people pseudo nationalist regimes that rose and fell on either side of the joint border.

The rootless Pahlavis in Tehran were a British creation and so was the imported Hashemite dynasty in Baghdad as well as the military dictatorships in its aftermath that indulged in jingoism.

Yet so firm are the age-old ties binding Iranian and Iraqi Muslims, colonialist agents failed in their divisive designs, even when the US imposed the 8-year war on the newly-founded Islamic Republic in the 1980s through Saddam of the repressive Ba’th minority regime of Baghdad.

It means, if such an intricately planned bloodbath failed to create bad blood between the Iranian and Iraqi people, could the recently manufactured crises such as burning down of the Iranian consulate in Basra by thugs on the payroll of the US and Saudi Arabia, or the anti-Iraqi propaganda on the Zionist-controlled social media by dubious elements claiming to be Iranians, drive away the two nations from each other!

Certainly not.

Much to the chagrin of the Americans, the Saudis and the Zionists – all three of whom have failed to take control of Iraq – the arrest of perpetrators of the Basra consulate attack, followed by the unity march staged in that port city by throngs of people carrying the Iraqi and Iranian flags, and the composition of the broad-based representative government that is finally taking shape in Baghdad, are indicative of the joint will in Tehran and Baghdad to further cement the time-honoured brotherhood.

One need not harp on the pre-Islamic era when for eight long centuries Iran and Iraq were one single realm standing like a solid bulwark against the eastward expansion bid of Imperial Rome and then the Christian Byzantine Empire. 

Neither is there any reason to refer to the Islamic era, including the founding of Baghdad as a cultural-academic melting pot by the Abbasid caliphate with the help of their Iranian viziers, and the dynasties that ruled the one single state of Iraq-Iran in the subsequent centuries till the Ottoman occupation of Iraq in the mid16th century – the Buwaihids, the Seljuqs, the Ilkhans, the Jalayarids, the Timurids, the Qara-Qoyunlo and the Safavids.

Nor is there any necessity to mention regular help from Iran and the Iranian people whenever the people of Iraq staged uprisings against Ottoman rule, or the role of the Iranian ulema in transforming holy Najaf into the world renowned seminary of Islamic studies and Arabic culture. 

This is proof of the fact that the strong support provided by the Islamic Republic of Iran to its Iraqi brethren during the reign of terror of Saddam, the brutal American occupation that followed, and the recent US-Saudi abortive bid to take over the country through the Takfiri terrorists, are not some new and unwarranted developments.

In view of these undeniable realities, if the harebrained Americans think they can succeed where the British failed, they are living in a fool’s paradise.

It is but natural for the people of Iraq – both Arabs and Kurds, whether Shi’a or Sunni – to stand beside their brethren in Iran, fully knowing that in addition to their overseas enemy, the US, their chief regional enemy is the Wahhabi cult of the spurious entity called Saudi Arabia, which used to fund to the tune of tens of billions of dollars, the genocide of Shi’a Arab Muslims and the ethnic Kurds. 

In other words, the Iraqi people are too mature to be swayed either by Washington’s propaganda tirade to endorse the illegal sanctions against Iran, or the bribes of Riyadh in building a football stadium in Basra and the doling out of a few million dollars of the stolen oil wealth of the deprived people of Qatif, to some suspicious elements. 

Therefore, senior Iraqi Lawmaker Intisar Hassan al-Musawi is absolutely right when she says the presence of the American consulate in Basra is a threat to Iraq’s security and sovereignty, as borne out by the recent ransacking of government offices and burning of the Iranian consulate in that city by anti-social elements on the payroll of the US and Saudi Arabia. 

So what Iraq’s newly elected Sunni Muslim Parliament Speaker, Mohammad al-Halbusi, said regarding firming of fraternal ties with Islamic Iran and invitation to his Iranian counterpart, Dr. Ali Larijani, to visit Baghdad, should not come as a surprise.

The expected election of veteran Iraqi politician Adel Abdul-Mahdi as the new Prime Minister heading a broad-based representative government of the countries various political, ethnic, and religious groups, will bring more surprises for the US, the Zionists, and reactionary Arab regimes.