Iraq’s pro-Iran politicians allege US conspiracy

An Iraqi parliament member slammed the US in an interview over the weekend, alleging the Americans want to “destabilize” Iraq and that the US is involved in a pro-ISIS conspiracy to bring extremists from Syria.

The US is the leader of the anti-ISIS Coalition and has been training Iraq and spent hundreds of millions to help Iraq defeat ISIS. Pro-Iranian voices in the region regularly accuse the US of having created or supported ISIS.

Karim Alawi, a member of the Iraqi parliament’s security and defense committee made the statements recently, according to Iran’s Tasnim news agency. Alavi said the US was going to bring “more than a thousand terrorists from Syria to Iraq through gaps in our borders and airspace.”

He relied on reports that Iraq was going to resettle Iraqi families who are in Syria who are alleged to have gone to Syria to support ISIS. “Information shows that most terrorists have been coming with their families in recent months.”

The Iraqi MP made his comments amid increasing tensions with the US. The US carried out airstrikes on Iraqi pro-Iranian militias in December and killed IRGC commander Qasem Soleimani on January 3 along with an Iraqi militia leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis.  Iraq militias have fired rockets at US forces in Iraq and pro-Iranian voices want the US to leave Iraq.

The Nujaba movement released a photo threatening US forces over the weekend and saying the countdown to remove the Americans is coming. Alawi has supported Iraq buying Russia’s S-400s and slammed the US before. He said  the US had a plan to attack Hashd al-Shaabi (PMU) bases in Iraq in 2018. The Hashd is a group of pro-Iranian paramilitaries.

Mohammed Karim, a member of the Fatah Alliance, which is led by Hadi Al-Amiri of the Badr Organization, also slammed the US “plans” to create unrest and “fitna” or “strife and sedition.” Karim is a long-time critic of the US in Iraq. He says the US plan for Iraq is “ominous” and that the US wants to co-opt tribal areas of Nineveh plains and somehow lead them into the arms of ISIS again.

“The US is working with some minority political parties to create new tribal and ethnic groups to remove them from Nineveh plains. The US goal is removing the Hashd brigades from these areas to resume the activities of ISIS terrorists gangs so that the US can continue tor realize its goal of keeping US troops here.”

In this convoluted conspiracy, the US works with minorities in Nineveh to encourage them to flee so that the PMU can be urged to leave, to create a vacuum for ISIS and then the US can stay in Iraq  to  fight ISIS. This conspiracy theory builds on reports that Christian communities in Nineveh are unhappy with the checkpoints set up by the PMU-backed Hashd al-Shebek units of Shi’ite Shebek minorities.

There have been calls for Badr and other PMU groups that support the Shebeks to withdraw from Nineveh. Nineveh plains was once the center of Christian minorities, and a mosaic of other groups such as Kurds, Yazidis, and groups including Turkmen. It was a gem of Iraq, ruined by ISIS, and the reconstruction era since 2017 has seen emergence of ISIS cells and a crackdown by militias. The US has Security Force Assistance  Brigades (SFAB) units in Nineveh to assist the Iraqis and Kurdish Peshmerga, nearby on Qarachogh mountain, to defeat ISIS.

But for the pro-Iran voices in Baghdad the conspiracy is that the US wants to “divide Iraq into several clans based on race and ethnicity,” Karim says.

Ahmed al-Kanani, an MP linked to the Al-Sadiqoun group, which is the political wing of Asaib Ahl al-Haq and part of the Fatah Alliance, has also accused pro-western Shi’ites of conspiring  against Iraq. Tasnim says that he accused Shi’ites who took refuge in the Kurdistan region of endangering Iraq’s security. The Fatah Alliance, which is  run by  Amiri of Badr and represents the PMU’s interests in parliament, says it will work against these other Shi’ites, according to Tasnim.

The report has all the ingredients of the usual pro-Iranian media rumors. Conspiracies linking the US to ISIS, conspiracies claiming the US will divide Iraq  and allegations against minorities, Kurds and “westernized” Shi’ites. This is the toxic mix that those linked to the Hashd and Iran push in Iraq’s media and in Iran’s media.