Iran’s increasing meddling in Iraq under the umbrella of West’s silence

The Iranian regime’s terrorist Quds Force has launched a genocidal campaign in Diyala, Baghdad, Babil and Salahuddin provinces as part of the regime’s policy of ethnically cleaning Sunni Muslims from the region.
 Four Sunni clerics also have been assassinated in southern Iraq’s Basra Province by forces affiliated to the Iranian regime.
 The European Iraqi Freedom Association said in a report: “The assassination of Sunni clerics in Basra indicates that thanks to the deafening silence of the international coalition against ISIS led by the United States, this genocide and sectarian purge has now been extended to southern Iraq as well.”
 EIFA quotes a Reuters news report which said: “More than 130,000 people, mostly Sunnis, fled central Iraq in 2014, counting just Baghdad’s agricultural belt and north-eastern Diyala province, the International Rescue Committee told Reuters. The exodus has left villages empty as Shiite paramilitaries, tribes and security forces fill the void.”
 Mr Struan Stevenson, former chair of Delegation for Relations with Iraq at the European Parliament who heads the European Iraqi Freedom Association added: “Calls for an investigation into the murder of these clerics are pointless since the identity and the nature of the perpetrators of these atrocities are already well known.
 “The militias affiliated with the Iranian regime such as Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq, Kata’ib Hezbollah, and Badr and their commanders such as Hadi al-Ameri and Abu Mehdi Mohandess, together with their Iranian masters such as General Qasem Soleimani and Ayatollah Khamenei are the perpetrators of these and thousands of similar crimes. As long as these militias and these individuals are in Iraq, these atrocities shall continue and the flames of sectarian war will be fanned.”
 According to Reuters, a national commander from Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq stated: “Our orders come from the government: whoever is with Islamic State, we will confiscate their land. Those who aren’t Islamic State will be allowed back.” Reuters nevertheless went on to state that those who have lost their homes say the militias make little distinction between jihadists and civilians when they storm areas.
 “A Shiite paramilitary organization is constructing a road to strengthen its positions across the mixed areas of Diyala and neighboring Salahuddin province… The Badr Organization, a leading political party and militia with ties to Iran, is supervising the new road, which leads to Samarra.”
 Mr Stevenson said: “EIFA once again warns that the United States and the European Union must end their silence and inaction regarding these crimes and should adopt concrete steps to help the new Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi evict the Iranian regime from Iraq; otherwise, the Middle East will enter into a quagmire of sectarian war with no end in sight.
 “Considering the current role of the so-called allied coalition in Iraq, whether the West likes it or not, its silence and inaction will be interpreted as a green light to the Iranian regime and its proxies to continue their atrocities.”