Politicians in Iraq back KSA stand

Worshippers, including senior military commanders and tribal sheikhs, pray during the first Friday prayer sermon since the city's recapture at a mosque inside Falluja, Iraq, on Friday. (REUTERS)

BADHDAD: Iraqi politicians described Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubair's call to dismantle the Iranian Popular Mobilization Forces as a genuine attempt at stopping a sectarian war.
They said that Iran, which runs these Shiite militias, plans to control Iraq and Syria through inflaming sectarian tension, and that if Saudi Arabia ignores these Iranian designs, the region will be engulfed in further conflicts.
Former Nineveh Gov. Ethel Al-Najafi said Iran is the biggest foe of Saudi Arabia and that Iraq's passive acceptance of the Iranian designs turned his country into a vassal of Iran.
Al-Jubair’s call to dismantle the Popular Mobilization Forces, said Al-Najafi, is of utmost importance, and the Arabs, particularly the Arab League, and the Organization of the Islamic Conference, as well as the international community should move to save Iraq from the clutches of Iran, whose militias are more dangerous than Daesh.
Al-Najafi denounced the war waged by Iraqi Shiites against Saudi Arabia, saying that Tehran views the Saudi position as a threat to its interests in the region.
Deputy Salem Al-Mutairi condemned Iran's and Iraqi Shiites' methodical attacks on Saudi Arabia and stressed that the call of the Saudi foreign minister is intended to thwart a sectarian war that Iran seeks to inflame not only in Iraq but in the whole region.
He said the Iraqi Shiite campaign against Saudi Arabia is unjustified and contributes to escalating the sectarian tension incited by Iran.
The campaign against Saudi Arabia, he added, raises doubt about Baghdad's claim that its operations are directed at Daesh and not intended to settle old scores.
Deputy Khalid Al-Mefriji said the unjust campaign launched by the militias is intended to conceal the crimes committed by the National Front of Iran against Sunnis, and that Iran does not want Saudi Arabia to support Sunnis in Iraq.
The Saudi position and acts pose a danger to the Iranian objective of fanning the flames of sectarian war, he said, adding that Al-Jubair’s call to dismantle militias that commit crimes against Sunnis in order to change the demographic reality in Iraq should act as a catalyst for an Arab and Islamic alliance to stop Iranian designs.
He also accused the militias that claimed to have come to Iraq to free it from Daesh of sectarianism at the instigation of Iran.