A New Iranian Tactic in Iraq

A New Iranian Tactic in Iraq
March 19, 2020, 6:31 am

Mohammed Khalil

It seems that the disappointments that hit Iran and its allies in Iraq in recent months have pushed Tehran towards adopting a new tactic to confront the United States on Iraqi soil. Iranian Tactic in Iraq

On the political level, Iran and its allies failed to impose their candidate to be the Prime Minister of Iraq, as Muhammad Allawi was unable to form a cabinet and submitted his resignation.

Likewise, the new candidate Adnan Al-Zurfi does not win the acceptance of these political forces, as five parliamentary blocs close to Iran announced their rejection of the way in which Al-Zurfi was appointed Prime Minister, although this refusal alone does not give Al-Zurfi legitimacy from the point of view of the Iraqi demonstrators, however it cannot be neglected that his appointment was a setback for the political forces close to Iran, even partially.

Another major disappointment for Iran and its allies was the extreme failure to implement the decision to expel American forces from Iraq. Although Iran put all its weight in the Iraqi parliament to take this decision, but no one was able to implement it, on the contrary, Washington faced that decision firmly, and announced that its forces will remain in Iraq.

With the same level of firmness, the United States has responded to all military attempts by pro-Iranian armed factions to strike at American forces. The American response has inflicted painful losses on the factions that attacked the American military bases, specifically the Iraqi Hezbollah group.

The operations carried out by these armed factions put the Iraqi state in an embarrassing position since these factions are part of the Popular Mobilization Forces that are formally considered part of the Iraqi armed forces, which caused more political losses for Iran in Iraq. Iranian Tactic in Iraq

Because of these developments, it seems that Tehran has decided to change its tactics regarding the US confrontation in Iraq. The basis of this new tactic is to form new and unknown armed groups to conduct military operations against US interests and bases in Iraq, the Usbat Al Thaierin (Revolutionaries) is an example of this.

Regardless of whether these armed groups are really new, or they are the same groups with new names, or even splinter groups from the existing forces, what is important here is that they do not officially belong to the PMF, and therefore they have no responsibility towards the Iraqi state. This means that the Iraqi state will not be able to exert any pressure or authority on these new groups, which will reduce the political cost resulting from the operations carried out by these groups against the Americans.

This new tactic reminds us of the period in which pro-Iranian armed groups arose in 2005 and which were considered new in that period. These groups were a direct reason for Iraq to enter a sectarian civil war. Consequently, this new Iranian tactic may open the door again to the potential for major civil conflicts in Iraq, and it will again enter Iraq in a cycle of instability and polarization. levant

By: Mohammed Khalil levant

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