Iran's influence in Iraq is dysfunctional and dangerous

For years, after the US invasion of 2003, Iran has engaged in subversion in Iraq, sending agents and military forces across the border.

By Nadia Hussain

Published: Tue 25 Feb 2020, 7:30 PM

Last updated: Tue 25 Feb 2020, 9:32 PM

The missiles that struck Iranian Quds Force Commander Qassem Soleimani's convoy at Baghdad International Airport in January also killed the deputy chairman of Iraq's Popular Mobilization Forces and commander of Kata'ib Hezbollah, Abu Mahdi Al Muhandis as well as an Iraqi named Jamal Jaafar Ibrahimi, a member of the Badr Corps which fought against Saddam Hussein alongside Iran in the 1980s. This most recent incident has highlighted the questionable relationship between elite officials in Iran and Iraq and once again underscores that Iran's involvement in Iraq is destabilising and detrimental to Iraq's future.
For years, after the US invasion of 2003, Iran has engaged in subversion in Iraq, sending agents and military forces across the border. Iran continues to hold Iraq hostage by sowing conflict and terror and promoting the notion of corruption, which ultimately damages the economy. With Iran, there is no freedom of choice or independence for Iraqi citizens. Without Iran, Iraqi citizens will be free from outside influence and can make their own decisions.
Iran's behaviour since the US invasion and overthrow of Saddam has been aggressive and destructive and indicates that Tehran's foremost goal in Iraq has been to prevent the emergence of an Iraq that is threatening to Iran itself.
Iran fears the re-emergence of a threatening anti-Iranian Iraq. The Islamic Republic is also worried that chaos or all-out civil war in Iraq could potentially spill over and destabilise Iran itself, or drag Iran into a regional conflict. Of course, Iran also remains concerned that the US could use Iraq as a springboard to invade Iran. Nonetheless, Iran cannot be allowed to shape Iraq's future.
What makes it easier for Iran to make inroads into Iraq is the fact that Iran is the birthplace of some of Iraq's most important clerics and during Hussein's regime, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei provided a safe haven to the Iraqi leader's opponents and financially supported Iraqi opposition groups such as the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq. Once Hussein was removed from power and the country found itself in a new order of chaos, many of those exiled in Iran returned to Iraq where they began to spread their extremist ideologies.
This influx of Iranian extremism into Iraq has caused extraordinary damage to Iraq's institutions as well as its social fabric and this is yet another reason why Iran and its destructive ideology must be disentwined from Iraq.
According to Farhad Alaaldin, chairman of the Iraq Advisory Council, Iran's influence is "deep within the Iraqi society", going back two decades, and Iranians "work very closely with the Iraqi political parties. There are very strong links - religious links, cultural links."
Today, Iran's wrongful hegemonic ambitions in the region include the takeover of Iraq and its economic, religious and political structures. Iran wants to turn Iraq into another Shiite theocracy and also wants to use Iraq as part of its 'land bridge' to Syria and Lebanon. This was recently confirmed by a trove of leaked Iranian documents, the contents of which demonstrate just how aggressively Tehran has worked to influence Iraqi affairs.
There are enormous economic opportunity costs for Iraq as well. Fearing instability and attacks at the hands of their regional rival, Gulf states are reluctant to roll out investment initiatives that could help reignite the Iraqi economy.
The Iraqis are rightly fed up with Iran's bullying. For Iraq to move forward, Iran must be forced to pull out from Iraq and cease from intentionally destabilising the country for its own, selfish, purposes.
The political protests that have swept through Iraq in recent months are often directed at what Iraqis perceive as Tehran's violent efforts to control their lives, rule their country and suppress their dissent.
Iranian-backed militias such as Asaib Ah Al Haq, Kataib Hezbollah and the Badr Organization have also been using "extreme measures to quell protesters, including opening fire on demonstrators," the US said in a recently published report. The quarterly Lead Inspector General report for Operation Inherent Resolve, the US military's operational name for the military intervention against Daesh in Iraq and Syria, focuses on Iran's damaging role in Iraq.
The report claims that Iran's activities have hindered the US ability to fight Daesh in Iraq and that Iranian-backed groups have gunned down hundreds of protesters and are loyal to Tehran more than Baghdad. They are willing to overthrow the Iraqi government or hijack it for their needs, as they have increasingly done. They target US forces and demand only those they choose can become prime minister.
The report also points to an analysis published by West Point's Combating Terrorism Center (CTC), that said PMF units backed by Iran maintain 'areas of influence' in central and northern Iraq and "have grown from approximately 4,000 personnel in 2010 to over 80,000 registered members in 2019."
According to Bilal Wahab, a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, "Iran's leaders have insisted that the demonstrations in Iraq are a conspiracy cooked up by Israel and the US. Their accusation has further alienated and enraged ordinary Iraqis. Tehran's actions and rhetoric over the past month have inadvertently triggered a deep strain of Iraqi nationalism."
It is clear then that the younger generation in Iraq is ready to escape Iran's strong grip and believes the Iraqi public can indeed establish a functioning government of its own. Iraq already has political parties that embody nationalism and focus on the needs of Iraq's citizens, as well as a broad pro-sovereignty movement made up of many groups who aim to rid the country of Iranian influence. There are a number of alternative Iraqi leadership options that will ultimately be better than Iran's damaging influence and, with the help of the US, Iraq can regain sovereignty and therefore make its own decisions.
Iran's influence in Iraq is dysfunctional and dangerous. It is time that Iraq takes control of its own future and becomes a sovereign country focusing on its own needs and the needs of its citizens. The return of Iraqi sovereignty will establish security and stability and will eliminate Iran's damaging ideologies that have destabilised Iraq until now.
Nadia Hussain is political analyst and researcher based in Norway