Above photo: INA.
Iranian and Iraqi officials anticipate that the US may pressure Iraq to disarm the Popular Mobilization Units.
The Secretary-General of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, Ali Larijani, arrived in Baghdad for two days of meetings with Iraqi officials regarding the future of the Axis of Resistance and the political stability of Iraq and the region, Shafaq News Agency reported on 11 August.
An informed source told Shafaq that, “Gathering the so-called Axis of Resistance in the region and rearranging its cards, along with Iraq’s political role in calming the situation in the region during the next phase, are among the most important files that Larijani brought with him to Baghdad.”
The secretary-general “stressed the need to employ tools and redistribute tasks after the withdrawal of US forces from Iraq according to the agreed-upon withdrawal schedule, and to find an official and protocol-based formula for this,” the source added.
The source indicated that Larijani will also discuss the “rapid formation of a government” in Iraq that will contribute to internal and regional stability.
While in Baghdad on Monday, Larijani also signed a security memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Iraq’s Prime Minister, Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, and National Security Advisor, Qasim al-Araji.
Sudani affirmed, “Baghdad’s tireless efforts to develop relations with Tehran and strengthen fruitful partnerships at various levels and in various fields, in the interest of both peoples.”
Larijani expressed the Iranian government’s desire to expand cooperation with Iraq, including by developing a passenger rail link and other transportation corridors between the two countries.
Earlier, Ali Akbar Velayati, an advisor to Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, held a phone call with Nouri al-Maliki, the head of the State of Law Coalition and former prime minister of Iraq.
The two discussed concerns that the US and Israel may seek to disarm the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU).
The US and Israel are currently pressuring the Lebanese government, led by President Joseph Aoun, to disarm Hezbollah.
Maliki expressed fears that the US and Israel would launch a similar pressure campaign in Iraq.
“We agreed that Iran and Iraq would refuse to disarm Hezbollah in Lebanon or the Popular Mobilization Forces in Iraq, and would stand in the way of that,” he added.
“Had it not been for the Popular Mobilization Forces, the Americans would have swallowed Iraq. The Popular Mobilization Forces play the same role in Iraq that Hezbollah plays in Lebanon,” Maliki stated.
In 2014, the PMU played a crucial role in defending Baghdad from ISIS, which enjoyed financial and military support from the US and the Iraqi Kurdish leader, Masoud Barzani.
Last year, Hezbollah fought a bloody two-month war to defend Lebanon from an Israeli invasion. Though a ceasefire was reached in November, Israel continues to bomb the south of Lebanon and continues to occupy five points in Lebanese territory.
