An American report: Iraq is "held hostage" and the state is disintegrating ... the Hashd militias se

[size=52]An American report: Iraq is "held hostage" and the state is disintegrating ... the Hashd militias serve Iran's ambitions[/size]

[size=31]America is morally falling short of the Iraqis who are being massacred by the militias supported by Tehran[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.][/size]

[size=45]After years of expelling ISIS from Iraq, Baghdad finds itself besieged again, and unlike 2014, those who besiege it are the same ones who participated in defeating ISIS and are now threatening the existence of the Iraqi state, according to the Iraqi researcher, Talha Abdul Razzaq.[/size]
[size=45]The researcher at the Institute for Strategy and Security at the University of Exeter writes in an article in  [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]  that Shiite militias are besieging the Green Zone less than five months before the country will elect its new leaders.[/size]
[size=45]The writer adds that the militias are besieging the heavily fortified diplomatic quarter in Baghdad, to demand the authorities release one of their leaders, who was arrested on terrorism-related charges.[/size]
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[size=45]The writer says that the Prime Minister, Mustafa Al-Kazemi, is under tremendous pressure to surrender to these demands, and the writer sees this as a clear indication that Iraq is being “held hostage” by a transnational Shiite jihad network led and controlled by Iran.[/size]
[size=45]The disintegration of the state has become more apparent since Iraqi protesters launched a protest movement in 2019, which has been renewed again in recent days after years of corruption, disastrous rule, and subservience to foreign interests.[/size]
[size=45]What makes matters worse this time, the writer adds, is that Shiite militias, including the Kataib Hezbollah group, which Washington has designated as "terrorist", are involved in dozens of politically motivated murder attempts and assassinations.[/size]
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[size=45]He notes that the family of a prominent activist in the Iraqi movement, Ihab Al-Wazni, who was killed outside his home, accused Qassem Musleh, a senior leader in the Popular Mobilization Militia linked to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, of being behind the crime.[/size]
[size=45]The authorities have arrested Musleh, but he may be released soon after the Hashd militia fighters surrounded the Green Zone, demanding his release, otherwise there would be violent consequences.[/size]
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[size=45]The writer continues that Al-Kazemi showed once again that he cannot control these armed groups, just as he was unable to bring the killers of his friend and famous terrorism expert Hisham Al-Hashemi to justice when he was assassinated last year. [/size]
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[size=45]The writer refers to a similar incident, when gunmen were arrested last year, a judge loyal to the "popular crowd" ordered their release due to "lack of evidence" and Al-Kazemi was unable to stop it.[/size]
[size=45]The writer considers that this is not surprising, as Iran's proxies in Iraq are at the heart of its transnational network, which stretches from Tehran through Baghdad and Damascus, all the way to Beirut.[/size]
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[size=45]Their activities include sex trafficking, the black market arms trade, and the illegal drug trade, which seeps across Iraq's porous border with Iran and has links to drug traffickers in Afghanistan.[/size]
[size=45]Such is the extent of their spread to the point that they were an integral part of the criminal activities of the Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah, which smuggled cocaine into the United States during the administration of former President Barack Obama.[/size]
[size=45]Despite all this criminal activity and the fact that these Shiite militias continue to bomb the military bases housing US and allied forces, the authorities in Baghdad are completely unable to stop them.[/size]
[size=45]Instead of being on the side of Iraqi law enforcement forces, the writer goes on, they are acting instead as agents of service to Iran's ambition to become a pre-eminent regional power.[/size]
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[size=45]In the face of these rampant gangs, he notes, it is not surprising that ordinary Iraqis who want an opportunity for a normal life are willing to risk their lives for freedom.[/size]
[size=45]He added that the United States and its allies in the international community owe the Iraqi people a great debt and fulfill the promise they made before the occupation of Iraq in 2003. The Iraqis have promised democracy. Instead, as one Iraqi best known for helping US forces destroy a statue of dictator Saddam Hussein when they entered Baghdad in 2003, Iraqis now have to deal with a thousand Saddam.[/size]
[size=45]And the writer goes on in his article, by saying that it would be a complete failure of the moral duty of the United States to step back now  [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] by Shiite militias supported by Iran, a country that is still considered one of the largest state sponsors of terrorism. By the US State Department.[/size]
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