BRITAIN and the United States had the gall to officially protest, last Wednesday, to the Iranian government about Iranian interference into the internal affairs of Iraq.
Britain and the US are the two states who in March 2003 began an illegal war and occupation of Iraq, starting with a shock and awe bombing campaign.
Not only is it the height of imperialist arrogance to allege Iranian intervention, suggesting that it is they alone who have the divine right to intervene in Iraq’s domestic affairs, it is also an expression of the complete bankruptcy of their entire policy.
In fact, the US-UK alliance invited Iranian intervention into Iraq.
In May 2003, after President Bush declared that the war was over, the US and UK governments and military invited into Iraq a legion of pro-Iranian politicians, religious leaders and militia leaders from Iran, who had been in exile there for over 20 years. They were allowed back as part of a deal with Iran. This was that they would collaborate with the occupiers and assist them with their occupation and even form part of a puppet government. The idea was that at the end of the occupation they would be left in charge of the country.
The Al Dawa party, which now provides the puppet Premier of Iraq, has kept Basra quiet for the British imperialists for the last two and a half years.
The Badr Brigades, the armed militia of the SCIRI movement, fought alongside the Iranians in the Iran-Iraq war, but has not fired a shot to support the insurrection.
It came back to Iraq to assist the US-UK occupiers.
Even when the Shi’ites of the Mahdi army took up arms against the occupation, the Badr militia stood aside from the struggle.
The leader of the SCIRI is in the puppet government and refuses to call for the end of the occupation, as does the Badr militia.
This collaborationist structure has been erected with the support of the Iranian government and has benefited the US-UK. It has now begun to collapse.
The prime cause is the tenacity of the insurgency which has inflicted heavy casualties on the US-UK occupiers. The secondary cause is the determination of the US to prevent Iran building a nuclear powered industrial complex.
The demoralised politicians and military leaders of the US and UK are now blaming Iran for the fact that the insurgents have developed their bomb making range to include one which can destroy the heaviest US tank.
The official protest of the US and the UK over Iranian interference in Iraq cannot be taken in any other way than a threat.
Yesterday pro-Iranian movements in southern Iraq made their reply. The head of the Badr Brigades, Hadi al Amiri, called for a federal Shia state in southern Iraq, saying: ‘Whatever have we got from the central government except death’.
His remarks were supported by a central government member Abdul Hakim al Aziz who added: ‘We think that it is necessary to form an entire region in the south.’
Such a policy will further undermine the unity of the puppet regime, and is calculated to aid the splitting of Iraq into three entities and turn southern Iraq towards Iran.
This policy is not supported by a majority of the Shi’ite people. The powerful Shi’ite movement following Moqtada al-Sadr supports the unity of Iraq.
The main issue is to drive forward the insurgency, to force the US and UK occupation armies out of Iraq and to create the conditions where the Iraqi people can resolve their problems through organising a workers and small farmers government, that will overcome all of the attempts to foster sectarian divisions.
