Senior Iraqi Shiite leader: Only Iran benefits current violence in Basra

Thursday, 27 March 2008

NCRI- Sheikh Kadhim Abdulwahed al-Anizan, head of the Southern Iraqi Tribal Council, in an interview with Al-Jazeera TV said on Wednesday that Iranian regime was the only party benefiting from the violent clashes in Basra.

"This is the Iranian Intelligence Ministry (MOIS) that has infiltrated everywhere in Iraq from Karbala to Najaf and to Basra," He said.

He called on Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to fight against MOIS infiltrations in Iraq.

Last month, more than 130 Iraqi tribal leaders from southern Iraqi provinces in a strongly worded joint statement condemned the visit by Ahmadinejad, the Iranian regime’s president, to Iraq.

“Since five years ago Iraq has turned into the scene of the Iranian regime’s meddling and aggression. Everyday hundreds of Iraqis are victims of the Iranian exported terrorism. In southern Iraq we are witnessing the murder of our children and ransack of our oil and other national wealth by the criminal elements of the Iranian regime,” the statement said.

Last November more than 300,000 Iraqis including hundreds of Shiite tribal leaders from Sothern provinces signed a petition condemning Iranian regime’s meddling in Iraq and supported the presence of the main Iranian opposition group, the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) in that country.

The petition was viewed as a turning point in Iraq. For the first time there was a public and organized display of opposition toward Iranian regime’s meddling by tribal leaders in the predominantly Shiite south.