TEHRAN - An Iraqi analyst says that Iraq’s history has shown that none of its neighbors would stand with the Iraqi people in its woes but Iran.

“The recent experience in Iraq has proven, beyond a shadow of doubt, that nobody stands with the Iraqi people in its dark days but Iran as a strong neighbor and benevolent country,” Ali Fahim tells the Tehran Times.

 “The Iraqis felt this stance during the days of the unjust siege, which was imposed by all the neighboring countries that were claiming to be friendly states, and no window was opened for the Iraqis except Iran,” Fahim explains.
Following is the text of the interview:

Q: After the fall of the Baathist regime in Iraq and removal of stumbling blocks that had hampered rapprochement between the Iranian and Iraqi peoples, voices have emerged to drive a wedge between the two nations and demonize the Islamic Republic. Who is behind these efforts?

A: This propaganda has been practiced widely, clearly and tangibly against the Islamic Republic of Iran in Iraqi, Arab, Zionist, American and British media outlets since the success of the Islamic Revolution in 1979, and especially after 2003 with the end of Saddam's Baathist rule.

With a simple extrapolation, we find that the word “Iran” is mentioned in the media affiliated with Saudi Arabia and the Emirates more than any other word and at a very large rate per day.

For example, you would not find a daily news program in which Iran is not mentioned as an evil player.

Al-Arabiya, Al-Hadath, and Sky News channels, and Al-Sharqiya and Dijla Channels follow the same policy, which target the Shia society in the center and south of Iraq.

There are other channels funded by Saudi Arabia and the Emirates and even established to fuel the flame of sectarian war, such as the Safa and Wesal channels and the Egyptian Salafi channels.

These parties tried to reap the fruits of war against ISIS in which the great positive role of Iran and its support for the Iraqi people in the face of the takfiri attacks by ISIS and its sisters were clarified.

The enemies of Iraq fathomed out the great strategic depth that Iran represents for Iraq, especially after its support by all material and moral means.

To that end, it was necessary to drive a wedge between Iranian and Iraqi peoples and to ruin the image of Iran as a true ally of Iraq in order to isolate it.

The first step was launching an informational campaign with unprecedented pressure, which was represented in the so-called October revolution. Although it attracted the youth masses with the slogans of fighting corruption, fighting unemployment, and demanding services, today none of these slogans are on the table but fighting Iran.

We saw such a clear effort in mobilizing and fueling anti-Iran sentiments when the football match between Iran and Iraq took place. Websites, channels, and discussions addressed the match as if it was a war.

And we saw how they called for the American, British, and Canadian ambassadors to play a role against Iran far from their diplomatic missions.

Q: Iran says that it is upholding the idea of regional resistance which is a comprehensive Islamic project that includes everyone – Sunnis, Shias, Christians - while Arab channels are trying to portray Iran as a country that supports sectarianism that splits the Islamic ummah. What is your view?

A: All this demonization of the Islamic Republic of Iran is because of its position, its care, and the strategic depth of the axis of resistance. If Iran had abandoned the axis of resistance and its ideology or adopted normalization of ties with Israel as most countries in the region did, we would have seen Iran portrayed as an angel in the Arab media, a friend, and an ally.

This fierce attack against Iran is due to its rejection of normalization of ties with the Zionist regime, but in order to justify this hostility for the Sunni Arab public, Iran is depicted as a sectarian force.
 That is all to laugh at the naïve people who care about the sectarian differences, otherwise, Iran supports Sunni Hamas and Sunni Islamic Jihad in Palestine as it supports all liberation movements against tyranny and arrogance in the world, even from non-Muslim countries.

If Iran were aligned with the American-Zionist policies, sectarianism and hostility against it would have disappeared, and that is why Iran was the police of the (Persian) Gulf in Shah’s era.

Q: Do you think the tendencies of some Shia groups in Iraq that want to demonize Iran are in the interest of Iraq and its security and stability?

A: The recent experience in Iraq has proven, beyond a shadow of doubt, that nobody stands with the Iraqi people in its dark days but Iran as a strong neighbor and benevolent country.

 The Iraqis felt this stance during the days of the unjust siege, which was imposed by all the neighboring countries that were claiming to be friendly states, and no window was opened for the Iraqis except Iran.

And after 2003, these states also closed their diplomatic doors and were reticent in dealing with the new political reality in Iraq, while Iran welcomed the new government and political reality in Iraq.

After the rise of ISIS and the collapse of Iraqi Army, Iran took a great stand at the hands of the martyred leader, General Qassem Soleimani; Iran opened its arsenals and supplied Iraq with military equipment, experts, and fighters, and general Soleimani went to Lebanon to bring commanders and field military experts to deal with ISIS, while Iraqis were ignorant of this type of war.

Soleimani led the battlefields with Iraqi leader Abu Mahdi Al-Muhandis to close this treacherous page of history. General Soleimani was assassinated in Iraq, and his blood was shed on the soil of Iraq.

All these positions prove that standing with the Arab campaign against the Islamic Republic and aligning with the plots engineered by the hostile media is a loss for Iraq first before it is a loss for Iran.

 Iraq is the one that needs Iran, not the opposite, and the anti-Iran groups are the losers. The alignment with the anti-Iran Arab project is in fact in line with the Zionist project and the project of normalization of ties with Israel in the region.

Those in charge of such a policy bet on the ignorance of many of these naive political groups and their emotional and unconscious behaviors.