Over the weekend, students gathered in cities across Iraq as arranged previously with the October Demonstration Committee. Large numbers of students participated and they made their major concerns heard.

The Iranian regime is the world’s biggest state sponsor of terrorism. For the past four decades, it has based its foreign policy on expanding throughout the Middle East. Most of its efforts have been centered around Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, and Iraq where the Iranian regime has established and provided extensive support to numerous militia groups.

The situation inside Iraq is currently very similar to the domestic situation in Iran. The people in both countries are hugely troubled by the political events and the corruption that is so present in Iran and Iraq.

Widespread protests erupted again in Iraq this weekend as angry citizens flooded the streets to demonstrate against government corruption and Iranian meddling in their country’s affairs. The nationwide uprising continued into this week despite a brutal government crackdown on the protesters triggered by influential Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr’s decision to withdraw his support for the protests.

Several hundred, according to some sources, and several thousand, according to other sources, rallied last Friday, January 24 in Baghdad in response to a call for a “million-man strong demonstration against US presence in Iraq” by Moqtada a-Sadr, an Iraqi Shiite firebrand known for his extreme and unforeseeable political positions. In a tweet sent later in the day, Sadr showed his disgust towards the Iraqis who did not take his word for taking part in the rally. From his headquarters back in the city of Qom in central Iran, Moqtada a-Sadr had been preparing the move for several weeks, in a bid to take a leading position in ongoing Iraqi unrest along with Iranian support.

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.