Ayatollah Khamenei: Islamic government has been formed in Iraq

Mehran Riazaty: Iran Analyst

Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei said on Monday that the Iraqi government symbolizes the failure of U.S. policies in the Middle East. In a meeting with Interior Minister Mostafa Purmohammadi and the country’s governor-generals, he said that the U.S. is seeking to create discord and insecurity in Iraq in an attempt to show that the popular government is incompetent. “The Americans are trying to provoke ethnic and religious war in Iraq and the tragic incident in Samarra is one instance in this regard,” he said in reference to the recent bombings of the two holy shrines in the Iraqi city. Khamenei said that incidents like the Samarra bombings and the recent publication of offensive cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad (S) in some Western periodicals were carried out with the same objectives. “They sought to materialize their own goals by inciting Muslims, but they failed since the blasphemous cartoons only increased the Islamic world’s hatred of the global arrogance and the incident in Samarra led to the unity of Shias and Sunnis in Iraq and in many other parts of the Islamic world.” Khamenei also stressed the need for the Muslim world to remain vigilant toward the enemies’ conspiracies. “The U.S. wanted to establish a subservient government in Iraq, but now an Islamic government has been formed in the country. Therefore, the Americans are trying to disrupt this government. However, their plots will all be neutralized through the vigilance of the Iraqi nation and their officials.” READ MORE

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Since Samarra’s explosion the Iranian authorities have used every opportunities to blame the US and Israel for that incident. On February 26, Fars news agency reported that the head of Iran’s parliament, Gholam Ali Haddad Adel said that the Samarra bombing was aimed at disrupting Iraq's domestic affairs. He noted that the Samarra’s explosion was also aimed to overshadow insult to Prophet Mohammad (Peace Be upon Him) by causing a rift among Muslims because immediately after the bombing international news agencies focused on differences between Shiites and Sunnis. Haddad Adel added that the occupiers intended to pit Muslims against one another, but their plot was neutralized due to the wisdom of the Iraqi nation, and messages of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei and Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani."

The state run news agency Tehran-times reported that The United States is suspect in Samarra’s explosion because it occupied Iraq on the pretext of establishing democracy in the country, but U.S. officials now realize that the democratic process has not turned out as they had planned and not benefited U.S. interests. Thus, the U.S. has changed its approach and is now trying to create sectarian and ethnic strife in Iraq.

The news agency added, recently, the U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, said that the Iraqi interior, defense, oil, and security affairs ministers must be approved by the U.S. and no one opposed to U.S. policy should be allowed to become a minister in the cabinet of Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari. Khalilzad’s recent remarks and the fact that he is claiming a veto right over cabinet appointments indicate that the United States seeks to prevent the formation of a national government in Iraq by creating chaos in the country. Alongside the U.S. efforts to trigger a sectarian conflict in Iraq, the Zionist lobby, surprised by Muslims’ united reaction to the Western media outlets’ insult of Prophet Muhammad (S), is now trying to break this unity. The unholy alliance of the United States, the Zionist regime, and the terrorists operating in Iraq planned the bombing of the holy shrines in order to justify the continued presence of occupying forces in the country.

It is interesting to know that the Iraqi officials close to Iran have said the same thing. On February 23, the Holy Samarra web log which is established by a group of students of Qom theology school to cover Iraq's events particularly the bomb blasts in the holy shrines in Samarra, reported that the Iraq's Vice-President Adel Abd al-Mahdi criticized Zalmay Khalilzad, the US ambassador for his inflammatory statement regarding sectarian divisions. He further said that Khalilzad statement on the desirability of interior minister to be non-religious as tantamount to intervention in Iraq's domestic affairs and impetus for fanning the flames of sectarian tension in Iraq. In another development, head of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) Abd al-Aziz al-Hakim said on Wednesday several hours after the bomb blast in Samarra that U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad shares some of the responsibility for the bombing of Imams (AS) shrine. He documented on Khalilzad's statement at a press conference Monday that US would not continue to support institutions run by sectarian groups with links to armed militias. "These statements were the reason for more pressure and gave green lights to terrorist groups. And, therefore, he shares in part of the responsibility." Khalilzad has urged the Iraqis to form a unity government in which nonsectarian figures control the ministries of Defense, which runs the army, and Interior Ministry, which is responsible for the police. The brother of Abd al-Aziz al-Hakim, Ayatollah Baqir Hakim (who was killed in Najaf on Friday August 29, 2003), was named by Ayatollah Khomeini as the head of an Islamic Republic of Iraq.

On February 26, the state run newspaper, Jomhourieslami reported that Moqtada Al Sadr, in the city of Basrah, said the Iraqi people must try to expel the occupied forces from Iraq. He added that the occupied forces are the root of creating all of the disputes between Shiite and Sunni in Iraq. Sadr noted, actually I have to say that all of the problems in Iraq are caused by the occupied forces.

In 2003, Al Safire newspaper, published in Lebanon reports that in an interview Moqtada Al Sadr, said the situation in Iraq is not like Iran and we do not expect to have Islamic government like Iran.

The Supreme leader of Iran Ayatollah Khamenei has already announced the establishment of the Islamic government in Iraq. It is obvious that the Iranian authorties are waiting for the US to withdrawl from Iraq, then they could officialy tell (or show off their power to the world) the world that they have establish their own form of government (Islamic Republic) in Iraq.

Mehran Riazaty: a former Iran analyst for the Central Command of the Coalition Forces in Baghdad.