An Iraqi protester during the growing uprising in Iraq against the Iranian regime- File Photo

Since the beginning of October last year, the people of Iraq have managed to maintain momentum on their nationwide uprising. They have been protesting against political corruption that has transformed their country into a shadow of its former self.

A major priority, and one that the Mujahedin-e Khalq (PMOI / MEK Iran) supports the Iraqis in, is for the Iranian regime to be expelled from Iraq. Iran has been meddling in the country’s internal affairs and has been fuelling conflict.

The MEK Iran has highlighted that the Iranian regime is piling resources into Iraq (and also Lebanon and Syria) because of the strategic importance these countries hold.

However, the situation has become more and more complicated because of the death of Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani and the intensity of protests in Iraq.

The people of Iran, supported by the MEK Iran, have been protesting the regime’s belligerence but they too have been suppressed. And at the end of last year, Qassem Soleimani helped the authorities in Iraq suppress the Iraqi protesters.

As the MEK Iran keeps reiterating, the Iranian regime’s existence depends on two major elements – the export of terrorism around the region and domestic oppression. Iraq is where the Iranian regime has been trying to impose hegemony. As a close neighbor to Iran, Iraq is one of the most vital places for it to overpower. And it goes back to the days of the Iran-Iraq war.

The regime tried to gain control over Iraq by taking advantage of the United States invasion of Iraq but its efforts have not been fully successful.

To suppress the Iraqi uprising, Soleimani and the Iranian regime’s ambassador to Iraq, have instigated the killing of peaceful protesters. They used local proxy groups such as the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), the Badr Brigades and Kata’ib Hezbollah. Innocent protesters have been killed in the same way protesters and supporters of the  MEK Iran have been killed in Iran.

Kata’ib Hezbollah is a group under“Popular Mobilization Units”,an umbrella grouping of paramilitary groups consisting of #Iran-backed militias.A Baghdad Shiite organization that specializes in funneling weapons& explosives from #Iran to other Iran-backed militants across #Iraq pic.twitter.com/yWILVSJ0L5

— MEK Iran (Mujahedin-e Khalq) (@MEK_Iran) December 30, 2019

MEK Iran Resistance units and protesters across Iran have been burning posters of Soleimani and the same is now happening in Iraq. Regime’s consulates in the southern part of Iraq are also being targeted by angry Iraqi protesters. Unrest in the country is worsening and the regime is struggling to contain it.

The Iranian regime has tried to cause rifts between the protesters and deflect towards the United States. It has also tried to intimidate the protesters but it has not succeeded.

First, it wanted to divert the protests toward the U.S. and cause rifts among the protesters. Then it tried to intimidate protesters, threaten them, exhaust them, waste their time with promises, then attack them. But the Iraqi protesters responded with more determination than ever.

MEK Iran reminds the people of Iran and Iraq that the regime is losing its strategic depth and that it is losing power. This, it says, is being worsened even further following the death of Qassem Soleimani – Iran’s top terrorist.