US influence threat to Iraq peace, prosperity: Analyst

Press TV has conducted an interview with Sabah Javad, the director of the Iraqi Democrats Against Occupation from London, to ask for his insight on recent popular demonstrations in support of Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi’s anti-corruption reform plans.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: How significant do you think it this support of Ayatollah Sistani for the reforms that have been laid out?

Javad: Very significant, there [are] a lot of steps…we need to [take] even so that the demonstrators, actually in different parts of Iraq and Baghdad and the south of Iraq, all over Iraq,…don’t have one leadership or organized leadership…The government attempts actually to implement some austerity measures against the Iraqi people and this situation for example decreases the wages, decreases the level of pensions, and increases the taxes on communication like telephones and so on. People, this summer, particularly were suffering a great deal because of the very high temperatures [that reached] 55 degrees, which resulted in people basically having showers on the road...This is an unprecedented situation in Iraq and since the Iraqi government spent over 35 billion dollars on restoring this electricity supply since the occupation of Iraq started in 2003 until now, people think that this huge amount of money…went on corruptions and commissions and fictitious circumstances. So people are fed up [with] this corruption, but they don’t stop the demand for good service. They are actually calling in some areas and some places [for] the abolishing of the Iraqi Constitution and reforms in the judicial system because they think that the judicial system protects people who steal money from the government in contracts, and some of them are ministers and high-ranking officials in the Iraqi government. These measures are taken by the prime minister [as the] very first steps, but the people are demanding much more than just that.

Press TV: We’ve just had US military officials calling for partitioning of Iraq and we’ve of course heard this word of partition several times when it comes to Iraq. We’ve had a longstanding occupation which ended. How do all of these play in when it comes to these reforms? 

Javad: Actually the people on the streets,…one of their slogans is the unity of Iraq, unity between Sunnis and Shias and Christians, unity against the theft of Iraqi wealth by the Kurdistan region by a lot of people and the government, fighting corruptions, and also the slogans against the Americans [and] what they’ve done in Iraq in terms of destruction, and also their vicious plan for the partition of Iraq. People are very much aware. And for the first time perhaps in many years we see in the demonstrations… taking place from Basra to the north that actually people are united, Sunnis and Shias and Christians joining in the demonstration for better life, for the future. As long as there is American influence in Iraq and America could play [its] cards in Iraq, we will have no peace or prosperity. [The] first and most important demand by the people is for the Americans to leave Iraq and not to intervene in Iraq in any way possible; no political influence, no military influence in Iraq.     

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