[Centraal] Irak en IS #120

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A bulletin from the Expediency Council, a state body chaired by influential former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, has offered rare insight into Iran’s strategic thinking over Iraq.

The report, from the council’s Centre for Strategic Research, entitled Concerns about Iraq and Considerations for the Future, has not been widely publicized. The author, Hassan Ahmadian, is an analyst at the council.

One “positive event of major importance” highlighted by Ahmadian is the west’s acceptance of Iranian weapons sales to Iraq insofar as they contribute to the broader struggle against the Islamic State group (Isis), despite a United Nations embargo on Iranian arms exports. But the report also warns that a weakening of Isis will lead the west one again to question Iran’s role.

Expressions of concern over Iran’s role against Isis by the United States have been muted. It “would raise serious concerns,” Jennifer Psaki, state department spokeswoman, said last year. Passed in 2007, UN Security Council Resolution 1747 bans Iran’s sale or export of heavy arms.

Iranian officials have never confirmed the extent of arms supplies. However, a figure of $16bn was given in January by Mehdi Tayeb, head of the Ammar base, a body set up to respond to the alleged “soft war” of the US against Iran in the wake of unrest after the disputed 2009 presidential election. Speaking in the Emam Javad mosque in Tehran on 19 January, Tayeb said this was the amount supplied since Isis’ “first attacks”, possibly referring to the group’s offensive last June when it seized a swathe of Iraq including the northern city of Mosul.

This confirms a huge increase in the flow of arms from Iran since Reuters in February last year acquired evidence of $195m in Iranian weapon supplies including mortars, tank parts, artillery, night-vision goggles and wireless communications equipment.

The Expediency Council bulletin reflects a growing sense in Iran that its role in Iraq is being perceived more favourably. As well as citing a relaxed western attitude towards arms supplies, it finds an increasing regional and global acceptance of the Quds force, the overseas arm of the IRGC (Islamic Revolutionary Guard corps). The report points out the western media are less inclined to identify the Quds force’s activities as “terrorism”, and that several western officials have requested meetings with its leader General Qassem Suleimani.

The report suggests the more favourable evaluation of Iran by foreign powers has also resulted from Tehran’s work last summer in negotiating the transition from Nouri al-Maliki to Haidar al-Abadi as prime minister, and from its “unprecedented” role in bringing at least a temporary solution to problems between Iraqi Kurdistan and Iraq’s central government.

But the bulletin also highlights recent developments in Iraq it says threaten Iranian interests. One “serious challenge” is Iraq’s improving relations with other regional states, including Saudi Arabia and Turkey. The bulletin emphasises that while Iraq has been the main source of assistance to Iraq against Isis, Turkey and Saudi Arabia are now taking advantage of Iraq’s security needs.

The report also considers a request – apparently made discretely by Iraq – for discussions over border arrangements. This has been a sensitive issue since the 1975 Algiers Accord, in which Iraq made a concession in agreeing the southern border as the thalweg, or deepest channel, of the Shatt al-Arab waterway (known to Iranians as Arvand Rud): Saddam Hussein revoked the agreement in 1980 as he launched an eight-year war with Iran, but it was restored as part of the ceasefire in 1988.

The bulletin identifies a further challenge in Iraq’s steps toward establishing a Sunni national guard to restore some Sunni Arab influence in a Shia-dominated political landscape, and points out the US is supporting the guard’s formation and training Arab Sunni tribes with help from Jordan. The report suggests such a plan could weaken the control of Iraq’s central government over provinces with Sunni Arab majorities.

Running through the report is the suggestion that with Isis now on the defensive, and concerns over the danger it poses diminishing, questions over Iran’s role in Iraq may again come to the fore. It therefore warns Iran’s leaders to be prepared for inevitable “pressure”.

In driving its point home, the bulletin refers to the sanctions committee of the UN Security Council identifying three cases of sanctions violations over arms exports by Tehran, one of which – previously unreported, it says – is Suleimani’s presence in Iraq.

Hence the report will be all the more closely read in Iran’s leadership circles after the claim from Suleimani last week that Isis and other “terrorist groups in Iraq and Syria...are nearing the end of their lives”.

twitter:

EjmAlrai twitterde op dinsdag 17-02-2015 om 22:56:39 Barzani:"Not one Shia militia will enter Kirkuk". he is right. Not one but hundreds. See videohttps://t.co/jgFqVo0uq0 via @Observe70083943 reageer retweet

موكب المجاهد هادي العامري في مدينه كركوك

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Op dinsdag 17 februari 2015 23:05 schreef UpsideDown het volgende:

twitter:

EjmAlrai twitterde op dinsdag 17-02-2015 om 22:56:39 Barzani:"Not one Shia militia will enter Kirkuk". he is right. Not one but hundreds. See videohttps://t.co/jgFqVo0uq0 via @Observe70083943 reageer retweet

موكب المجاهد هادي العامري في مدينه كركوك

[ afbeelding ]

شاهد اقوى واكبر رتل لابطال كتائب حزب الله لمحاربة داعش الارهابي 2015

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Op woensdag 18 februari 2015 01:36 schreef Szura het volgende:
http://edition.cnn.com/20(...)s-assault/index.html

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Op woensdag 18 februari 2015 02:30 schreef Montana_ir het volgende:
'Grote aanval IS op Koerden bij Iraakse stad Erbil'

Strijders van terreurgroep Islamitische Staat (IS) zijn begonnen aan een omvangrijk offensief in de buurt van de Iraakse stad Erbil. Dat meldt de Amerikaanse nieuwszender CNN. De jihadisten voerden 'grote aanvallen' uit op de steden Gwer en Makhmour, enkele tientallen kilometers ten zuidwesten van Erbil. Volgens de Koerden worden ze vanaf meerdere kanten aangevallen.

http://m.ad.nl/ad/m/nl/10(...)kse-stad-Erbil.dhtml

twitter:

DilbaKurd twitterde op dinsdag 17-02-2015 om 23:48:45 From village Tal Alrim, Gwer front near #Mosul. After intense combat #ISIS have fled leaving their dead behind them. http://t.co/C7zWeUTg2j reageer retweet

twitter:

AP twitterde op dinsdag 17-02-2015 om 20:32:06 Iraq's Shiite militias form uneasy alliance with Kurds to defend Kirkuk from Islamic State: http://t.co/9xQryEHJDf reageer retweet

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Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr has shut down two militia groups after the assassination of a prominent Sunni tribal leader and the subsequent deepening of sectarian tensions across Iraq.

Sadr’s announcement that Youm-AlMauad and Saraia Salami, two Shiite brigades fighting against ISIS alongside Iraqi security forces, must suspend operations follow’s outrage over last week’s murder of the Sheik Qasim al-Janabi and eight others in central Baghdad.

“What happened proves that Iraq is not suffering from foreign forces alone, but suffers from militia groups as well. Both are undermining the Iraqi government and pose security threats to the country,” said Sadr, who added he was willing to work with security forces to find the murderers.

Sadr also called on political parties to be patient for investigation results, referring to Sunni politicians who threatened to walk out of Iraqi parliament in the aftermath of the killing.

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Iraq’s First Vice President Nouri al-Maliki says the Islamic Republic of Iran has played a “historic” and “effective” role in helping the Iraqi military forces drive back members of ISIL Takfiri terrorist group.

Speaking at a press briefing following a meeting with his Iranian counterpart, Es’haq Jahangiri, in Baghdad on Tuesday, Maliki praised Tehran’s “timely” and “unconditional” assistance to the Iraqi government and nation in the fight against ISIL.

Baghdad and the northern Kurdish city of Erbil would have fallen into the hands of Takfiris if Iran had not rushed to help Iraq, Maliki said, calling for closer cooperation between the two neighboring states in the anti-ISIL campaign.

Maliki also pointed to the plots being devised in the Middle East, saying certain parties are seeking to fan the flames of tribal conflicts, and those drawing up such schemes do not favor the resolution of crises in the Middle East and the restoration of calm to the troubled region.

On January 6, Secretary General of Iraq’s Badr Organization Hadi al-Ameri said Iran saved the Iraqi government from the threat of collapse by the ISIL Takfiri group.

“If it were not for the cooperation of the Islamic Republic of Iran and [Major] General [Qasem] Soleimani [a commander of Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC)], we would not today have a government headed by [Iraqi Prime Minister] Haider al-Abadi in Baghdad,” the top commander of Iraq’s volunteer forces noted.

Iran has repeatedly stressed that it will not interfere militarily in Iraq and Syria, but the Islamic Republic continues to provide support to both countries against ISIL in the form of defense consultation and humanitarian aid.

The ISIL started its campaign of terror in Iraq in early June 2014. The heavily-armed militants took control of Mosul before sweeping through parts of the country’s Sunni Arab heartland.

The terrorists have been carrying out horrific acts of violence, including public decapitations, against all Iraqi communities such as Shias, Sunnis, Kurds and Christians.

Iraqi soldiers, police units, Kurdish forces, Shia volunteers and Sunni tribesmen have succeeded in driving the ISIL terrorists out of some areas in Iraq.

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Op woensdag 18 februari 2015 12:24 schreef reza1 het volgende:
Iran effectively pushing back ISIL in Iraq: Maliki

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The so-called international coalition formed by some Western governments and their regional allies against the ISIL Takfiri terrorists operating in Iraq has been ineffective, says an Iranian official.

Major General Yahya Rahim Safavi, who serves as top military advisor to Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, said Tuesday that the US-led coalition lacks the sufficient power and capability to counter the Takfiri terrorists.

The high-profile Iranian general, who was addressing a gathering at Iran’s Defense Ministry, dismissed claims by Western governments that the coalition airstrikes have helped Iraqi government repel the ISIL terrorists from some towns and villages.

Safavi said Iraq has made the gains against ISIL by using its volunteer forces and also the military consultations that have been provided by Tehran.

“Currently, the coalition that has been formed against ISIL actually lacks the offensive power and it is Iran’s consultations to the Iraqi government that (have made it capable of benefiting from) volunteer forces in attacking ISIL,” Safavi stated.

‘Plots for Syria in permanent failure’

Safavi, who served as commander of Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) between 1997 and 2007, also touched upon the current situation in Syria, saying that the Western governments and their allies have failed in their plots to overthrow the government of President Bashar al-Assad.

“Iran and Russia got united and did not allow the US, Europe and some Arab countries in the region to achieve their malicious goals (in Syria),” he said.

The United States and some of its allies have been conducting airstrikes against ISIL positions in Iraq since early August 2014. The attacks also began to cover some parts of Syria in September that year, although the move was not made upon authorization by the government in Damascus, which slammed it as a blatant violation of Syria’s sovereignty.

From the very inception of the aerial campaign, Iran questioned the effectiveness and legitimacy of the coalition in dealing with ISIL in Iraq. Iran’s Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Marzieh Afkham said in early September that “there are severe misgivings about the determination and sincerity of the coalition in fighting the root causes of terrorism.”

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The most powerful leader of Shias in Iraq, Ayatollah Sayed Ali Al-Sistani has issued a powerful statement to the Shia resistance volunteer fighters in Iraq, reminding them of their obligations towards justice. Ayatollah Sistani is followed by millions of Shia Muslims across the world and is responsible for reigning in sectarian bloodshed in Iraq in the past decade. The full translation can be found here.

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God has called for Jihad & has privileged the warriors. It is necessary, then, to learn these conditions & etiquettes of jihad thoroughly

Do not indulge in acts of extremism, do not disrespect dead corpses, do not resort to deceit, do not kill an elder, a child, a woman. Pay heed to the example of Imam Ali and follow his path. He said: “set your sights on the Family of the Prophet. Make them proud.”

Be attentive to the sanctity of the human souls! Never should you do to them something which God has not deemed permissible. Be attentive to the sanctity of the lives of those who do not fight: the weak, children, women. Even if families of those who fight you.

Do not condemn others to heresy. Do not accuse them of blasphemy which could then lead to their death. Do not imitate the Kharijites. Never inflict harm on non-Muslims, regardless of their religion and sect. The non-Muslims are under the protection of the Muslims. In fact the Muslim must protect his non-Muslim neighbours in the same manner and vigour as he would when he protects his own family.

Do not steal the money of others. Those who steal from others will find themselves seated in the flames of the fires of hell. Do not disrespect the corpse of the dead, and if you defeat the men of your enemies do not violate the sanctity of their women and houses. Do not enter their [defeated enemies] homes.

Don’t take anything from their houses. Take only what you find in their military encampments. Do not verbally abuse their women. Do not insult their honour, even if your enemies abuse your women and insult your honour. Do not deprive any people, who do not fight you, of their rights.

Know that most of those who fight you are victims who have been led astray by others. Let your righteous actions, your just conduct, and your sound admonition, serve as an example for them. Do not resort to oppression.

Corruption can only be cured by justice.

It may be the case that when you adhere to good conduct & discipline you suffer losses. This, nevertheless, is more spiritually rewarding. Be the guardians and admonishers of those who accept you, so that in the end they will support you against your enemies. Help the weak among them however you can. They are your brothers & your family. Show compassion towards them like you do with your own.

Do not let anything take precedence over your obligatory prayers. Prayer is the means through which man humbles himself before God. Remember God at all times. Recite passages from the Qurʾan. Remember that one day you will stand before Him.
Strive to act in the same righteous manner as the Prophet and his progeny, peace be upon them, in times of war and peace. Be the good example that Islam deserves. This is the religion that was built on illumination, reason, and good manners.

Do not be haste in situations where caution is required. Do not undergo an action which will be the cause of your spiritual perdition. Advise each other. You will not find better advice than that which you offer each other. Unite, come together & overlook your differences.

Everyone must let go of sentiments which carry hatred and bigotry. Follow the noble manners. Do not be overcome by narrow-minded views.

twitter:

RGjournalist twitterde op woensdag 18-02-2015 om 14:26:22 Maar goed. Er is dus weinig aan de hand. Zeker voor NLse militairen. CNN blaast ook buiten proportie op. Groeten uit Irak. Tijd voor kebab reageer retweet

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Op woensdag 18 februari 2015 17:09 schreef vigen98 het volgende:

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Maliki moet zijn gore bek eens houden, oh als die hier was had ik hem graag een stoot voor zijn bek gegeven.

Beter hangen ze hem ook op