Saudis seek to intensify sectarian tension in Iraq: Expert

Press TV has interviewed Zayd al-Isa, a Middle East expert in London, to discuss the latest developments in Iraq.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: When it comes to Iraq, this story is divided into the political and of course the military aspect. Militarily speaking, you have the US make an announcement just about a week ago, troop increase, consecutively now to both Iraq and Syria. What are the US intentions right now when it comes to Iraq?

Isa: Basically we see Biden flying into Iraq unannounced, which follows hot on the heels of Kerry, the foreign minister of America, also going to Iraq on the eighth of this month. They have a simple message that we are basically in control, we are the ones running the show, we are the ones calling the shots and we are intensifying and escalating our presence in Iraq, more boots on the ground and this time they are combat forces, more strategic bases built in Iraq and all this according to the Americans under the acceptance of the Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, who is facilitating the increase of the American forces on Iraqi soil.

We must not also forget that this comes at the same time when there is a political deepening, political crisis, which is intensifying, following hot on the heels of demonstrations by ordinary Iraqis, demanding that all those ministers who have been appointed on the basis of political affiliation or on the basis of being appointed by political blocs have to be removed and people who are more competent, who represent the Iraqi people, who basically are ready to fight and confront the widespread endemic rampant corruption and widespread unemployment are installed.

This bombing should serve as a stark reminder and a wake-up call to those politicians who are still feuding and squabbling over political positions or over influence and power and should serve as a reminder to those political blocs that the patience of Iraqi people is running out, they are sick and tired and they are fed up to the back teeth with those politicians who are only interested in lining up their pockets and intensifying their influence.

We must not forget that this attack comes also when we see Daesh or ISIS on the back feet reeling from and hobbling from one defeat to another major defeat in several areas of Iraq. We can all ratchet up the rate of getting rid of Daesh by allowing the Popular Mobilization forces to take on and take the fight to ISIS, because after all it was the one that spearheaded and were on the forefront of clawing back the entire area, Province of Diyala, Tikrit, Jurf al-Sakhar and numerous other locations; and now we see that the Iraqi government is adhering and complying to the wishes of the Americans and the Saudis that the Popular Mobilization forces should not be deployed in the area of Anbar.

And we have heard the Saudi ambassador blatantly and bluntly saying that the Popular Mobilization forces are sectarian forces and he has vetoed, which was one of the purposes of the Saudi government entering the so-called US-led coalition which has proved itself to be futile and has not really put its heart in defeating ISIS.

But one of the main conditions of the Saudi government was to keep ISIS, to contain it, weaken it, but keep it as a credible, viable threat against the Syrian government in order to topple the Syrian government and weaken, dramatically weaken, destabilize Iraq, because Iraq is perceived by the Saudis as offering the backbone support to the Syrian government and to utilize ISIS in the long-run as a military arm against the Islamic Republic of Iran. 

This is the entire and whole strategy of the Saudis and the Americans are supporting them in that. We have seen that each time Daesh is on the back feet, the Saudi government throws it a lifeline by intensifying the sectarian tension and ratcheting up the sectarian strife in the region not only in Iraq but in Syria, in Lebanon and it keeps interfering and meddling in those countries and that has been acknowledged by the German intelligence service, which stated clearly that it is the Saudi aggressive foreign policy which is based on military intervention that is pushing the entire region to ... destabilizing levels which are unprecedented, and comes hot on the heels of assertion by the German vice chancellor that it is the Saudis financing, building Wahhabi mosques all over the world that is causing the revival and radicalization of ordinary Muslims, and that was acknowledged by Obama himself who said in The Atlantic that it is the Saudi Wahhabi ideology, the extremist violent ideology that is turning moderate Muslims into radicals and causing all this terrorism in the region, and also exporting the terrorism to Europe because of the use of billions of dollars to revive and intensify and export the extremist Wahhabi-Salafi ideology all around the world.

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