(Jerusalem Post) Hillel Frisch - Iran has been jolted by the recurrent attacks in recent days against the headquarters of pro-Iranian militias in Iraq's southern Shi'ite provinces. In Karbala, the headquarters of two major pro-Iranian militias were evacuated and closed by the police as a preventive measure. The reason behind the anger against Iran and its local proxies in both Iraq and Lebanon is that the militias in Iraq and Hizbullah have been increasingly milking their governments to maintain themselves. In Iraq, a law was passed integrating these militias into the federal army, giving their members the same salaries and benefits enjoyed by army soldiers. Not one militia was dismantled. What worries the Iranian political elite the most is the potential linkage between these protests and the recurrent protests taking place in Iran itself. The writer is a professor of Political and Middle Eastern Studies at Bar-Ilan University.
2019-11-06 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive