UPDATES

Is Iran really not at war with the West?

Jul 6, 2011 | Daniel Meyerowitz-Katz

Is Iran really not at war with the West?
2030

Since the bulk of US forces in Iraq have been withdrawn, the country has been seeing an increasingly worrying spike in violence. What is especially concerning is the alleged source of this renewed upsurge in the conflict. As reported in The Washington Post last week:

BAGHDAD – Three U.S. soldiers were killed this week in a rocket attack at a U.S. base near the Iranian border, the military said Thursday, bringing June’s death toll to 15 and marking the bloodiest month for U.S. troops in Iraq in two years.

U.S. military commanders have said in recent months that they feared such an increase in violence would accompany the planned withdrawal of most American troops by the end of the year. Military officials in Baghdad and at the Pentagon blamed the mounting death toll on the growing sophistication of weapons that insurgents and Iranian-backed militia groups are using, including powerful rockets, armor-piercing grenades and jam-resistant roadside bombs suspected of coming from Iran.

As the largest and most powerful Arab country next to Iran, Iraq has been the traditional counterweight to Persian influence in the region. Since Saddam was toppled, however, Iran has been attempting to negate this strategic threat by consolidating proxy power in Iraq. The current position of Iranian-linked radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr as the effective kingmaker in the Iraqi parliament demonstrates how far this Iranian influence has come – especially as Shiite militia groups linked to Iran and Sadr have been claiming responsibility for these recent attacks on US troops.

What’s more, as Middle East scholar Barry Rubin noted yesterday the so-called “Iranian axis” of Iran, Syria and Hizballah – who currently control most of Lebanon – have been openly and consistently waging war against the US and its allies in Iraq for years. The groups have even bragged openly on Hizballah’s al-Manar TV (which is currently broadcast in Australia) about killing US troops.

As I reported yesterday, the IAEA has finally begun to look into Syria’s clandestine nuclear program and as AIJAC’s update explained on Monday, Syria and Hizballah have just been implicated in the 2005 assassination of the then popular and pro-Western Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri. There were even revelations from last year’s Wikileaks cables that Iran has been supporting the Taliban in its fight against the US and Australia in Afghanistan, and yet this entire situation seems to have somehow slipped under the radar in the West.

Given these circumstances, it’s clear that the West needs to do more to prevent Iran and its allies from advancing their aim of achieving hegemony in the Middle East. These revelations also provide yet another reason that more should be done to aid the Syrian people in their fight for freedom against their brutal dictator.

 

 

RELATED ARTICLES


Sderot, Israel. 7th Oct, 2023. Bodies of dead Israelis lie on the ground following the attacks of Hamas (Image: Ilia Yefimovich/dpa/Alamy Live News)

Israel’s Sept. 11, only worse

Oct 11, 2023 | Update
Israeli PM Binyamin Netanyahu (r) gets his long-awaited face-to-face meeting with US President Joe Biden in New York (Photo: Avi Ohayon, Israeli Government Press Office)

Netanyahu meets Biden, other world leaders, in New York

Sep 27, 2023 | Update
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, who gave an address on Aug. 28 threatening the US and laying out the Iranian-led axis's new "unity of the arenas" doctrine. (Photo: Shutterstock, mohammad kassir)

US-Iran prisoner swap deal set to go through

Sep 12, 2023 | Update
A rally of Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party last year: Yet outside these faithful, Abbas is not only largely unpopular, but his rule over the PA has seen the Palestinian parliament dissolved, judiciary sidelined, and his party hollowed out (Photo: Shutterstock, Anas-Mohammed)

The Crisis in the PA

Aug 28, 2023 | Update
Reports are suggesting a US-Saudi agreement has been reached on the broad outlines of a package that would see Riyadh normalise its relations with Israel, perhaps early next year - though other reports dispute this. (Image: Shutterstock, OnePixelStudio)

Renewed focus on Saudi-Israeli normalisation

Aug 14, 2023 | Update
PM Netanyahu flanked by Justice Minister Yariv Levin (r), the main architect of the judicial reform package, and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant (l), known to favour compromise on the reforms, during the Knesset debate over passage of the "reasonableness" clause" on July 25 (Image: Screenshot, Kan TV).

The aftermath of passage of one judicial reform bill in Israel

Aug 1, 2023 | Update

SIGN UP FOR AIJAC EMAILS

RECENT POSTS

Section 93Z of the NSW Crimes Act 1900

AIJAC welcomes the passage of improved NSW race hate laws

Pro-Palestinian protestors waiting in the lobby for the Israeli families of those murdered or taken hostage by Hamas

AIJAC questions handling of pro-Palestinian protestors ambushing visiting families of Israeli murder victims and hostages

Masked members of the al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas (Image: Shutterstock)

A powerless Hamas is the only way this war will end

Pie Chart

News reports whitewash the crimes of Palestinian prisoners being released

(Image: Shutterstock)

The silence about Hamas’ ongoing war crimes

Section 93Z of the NSW Crimes Act 1900

AIJAC welcomes the passage of improved NSW race hate laws

Pro-Palestinian protestors waiting in the lobby for the Israeli families of those murdered or taken hostage by Hamas

AIJAC questions handling of pro-Palestinian protestors ambushing visiting families of Israeli murder victims and hostages

Masked members of the al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas (Image: Shutterstock)

A powerless Hamas is the only way this war will end

Pie Chart

News reports whitewash the crimes of Palestinian prisoners being released

(Image: Shutterstock)

The silence about Hamas’ ongoing war crimes

SORT BY TOPICS