The disobedience of Iranian proxies in Iraq is crossing the line, pushing Iranian generals to resign out of a sense of incapacity.
According to recent reports, Iranian general Haider al-Afghani has addressed Al-Quds special unit General Esmail Kaani, asking for a transfer.
General al-Afghani is the Iranian Revolutionary Guard’s officer in charge of Iraqi armed groups. Claiming that Iran-backed paramilitaries ignore Tehran’s orders, he submitted a request to transfer his services out of Iraq.
General al-Afghani was the first to openly claim discontent with Iraqi groups. Many of his mates from the IRGC reportedly share this opinion, but do not publicly express it.
The role of armed groups in Iran’s policy in Iraq increased amid the growing influence of ISIS on the territory of Iraq since 2014. However, the assassination of high-ranking Iranian general Qasem Soleimani in January 2020 marked a turning point in relationships between Tehran and Iraqi groups. Iran resumed negotiations on the Iranian Nuclear Deal with the US, demanding the sanctions to be lifted.
The ongoing negotiations in Vienna are a signal to Iraqi armed groups. They fear that Tehran might drop their support in exchange for the easing of sanctions.
Moreover, Iran and Saudi Arabia have launched negotiations in an attempt to ease regional tensions – particularly in Yemen and Lebanon.
As a result, frightened Shiite Iraqi militias have gotten out of control.
In violation of Iranian orders, they have stepped up attacks on US convoys and military bases in Iraq. Kataeb Hezbollah and Asaib Ahl al-Haq, the most powerful Shia armed factions, appear to be at the forefront of the rebellion.
One prominent commander of an Iraqi armed group was quoted as saying that the divisions between Iranians and Iraqis have been going on for months. Iraqi commanders feel like puppets who are asked to attack the US forces, then to remain calm.
On the other hand, information about the resignation of Iranian General al-Afghani surfaces just at the moment when negative comments about the Iran-US talks come out of Vienna. US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken reiterated that Washington did not notice Tehran’s readiness to return to compliance with the terms of the nuclear deal.
The issue of Iranian proxies in Iraq plays an important role in negotiations. The US, in exchange for the withdrawal of its forces from Iraq, demands Tehran to reduce its presence there.
The statements about al-Afghani’s transfer and his demands to withdraw his advisers from Iraq may be a signal to Washington that Tehran is ready to accept US terms.
Only one bit of “evidence” in this: Haider al-Afghani wants a transfer. This sounds more like propaganda designed to drive a wedge between Iran and Iranian proxies in Iraq. Pretty evidence-free otherwise. So what is it? Is Tehran that desperate to get back into the JCPOA, or is this a baseless story aimed at weakening Iranian proxies?
So, you think it is inconceivable that allies would have trust issues and might break up? Yeah, that has never happened in history. Just because you crave war does not mean that Iraqis want to die for Iranian strategic goals. It happens.
This article is a pathetic Zionist desperate disinformation piece. On the contrary, Iran is about to get a hard-line conservative Raissi government and then resistance against the US brutal occupation in Iraq, Syria and the region will start in earnest.
Zionist child killers are getting desperate with these fantasies LOL
The hell!!??
Who is this “general Haydar al-Afghani”? Is there a picture of him or he’s just like the infamous “general Shahlaee” in Yemen? It gets better. You probably heard about Fatmiyun and Zeynabiyun, volunteer forces from Afghanistan and Pakistan respectively. In Iraqi volunteers’ case it’s “Heydariyun” (meaning the Heydar’s followers. Heydar is one Imam Ali’s titles). And the surename of Afghani is a strange name for an Iranian, unless it’s a title like Shishani (from Chechnya) or Ameriki (from US). Anyway…
One thing that anybody which follows Iran’s news can be sure of, is that this round of talks in Vienna are purely for domestic consumption to prove that liberals (the combination of what we call Reformists and Moderates) in Iran are doing something after ruining the country. Nobody expects anything to come out of it because Iran’s position by its high-ranking decision makers (supreme council of national security, the office of the leader and national security commission in the parliament) is that if US wants to return to JCPoA, they have to do their part and then after assessment which will take between 3-6 months Iran will return to its commitments under the deal. It’s hardened by a law in the parliament and the evaluation will be done by the parliament. So the administration cannot offer anything more than Iran’s commitments under JCPoA. The US stance is not compatible with this, they want more to do less (decrease in Iran’s defence program, nuclear program and Iran’s influence in exchange for suspense of some of sanctions Trump put in place).
You should know that Iran’s team in Vienna did not speak to any Iranian media since the talks are started and the administration kept people in the dark. On the other hand, Rouhani repeatedly claimed that the US is atoned and ALL the sanctions are to be lifted permanently which is a lie, but most people have no way of verifying it, unless they hear news from foreign news outlets. Interestingly, the Persian services of BBC, VOA et al do not talk about this. My own guess as to why they do it? Economics here do not follow the rules of economics and is very politicized. When there’s a rumour about a possible deal between Iran and US, it affects and strengthens the Rial value and vice versa. The ultimate plan of liberals is to put the blame on the so-called Hardliners (they are not really hardliners, more like conservatives but with socialists economic policies) when eventually the talks stop and Iranian Rial takes another nose-dive.
What I wrote above is clear for anybody which is able to connect the dots. Just like so many other countries, Iranian administration (president and his cabinet) do not possess the power to change the basic core policies of the country, there are higher echelons of power to decide them. Iranian armed forces -including IRGC- do not answer to the president but to the CiC who is the leader of the country Ayatollah Khamenei and they follow the guidelines which the policymakers draw for them. We are lucky in this regard because if it was up to Rouhani, the country was already disintegrated and scattered in the wind.
Iran’s support of its allies is a crucial part of Iran’s national security and no amount of “bones” by west can make Iran to leave them dry and they know it too. Iran is not like the US to change allies overnight and for short-term gains, specially the allies in the region that we have to live with. Notice that Rouhani admin did everything in its power to destroy Iran’s relations with both Russia and China but couldn’t because the decisionmakers in Russia and China also know this and were promptly briefed.
And about the talks with Saudis, we know that these meetings are initiated by Saudis who are in a position of weakness and cannot possibly give anything to Iran to change the country’s long-term policy in regard to Iran’s allies. So far Iran wasn’t interested in finding allies inside Arabia but it will change, perhaps we’ll hear about Qasimiyun or something similar from Arabia in a-not-so-distant future?
I cannot understand based on what fact the author writes such a nonsense?
Thank you for the insight. I’m not Iranian, and this story is not easy to make sense of. Especially with a shift in Iranian politics to “hardliners”.
Anytime. Yeah, the story is a fabrication and wishful thinking.
And yes, the so-called hardliners are on the rise -arguably- for the first time since ’79 (Ahmadinejad attached himself to the conservatives to rise and after he won his 2nd term showed his true colour, to a degree that all conservatives washed their hands off him and almost all of his circle are in jail for financial crimes).
Good news is, the parliament yesterday passed a law which made a lot of people nervous: No public servant official is allowed to leave the country after he or she left the office for 3 years and after that they can do so only after they receive a permit. This law was passed solely for officials of Rouhani admin and almost all major and medium city council members and mayors, after years of mismanagement (if we are so naive) and outright embezzlement, theft and bribery.
I for one am looking forward for the day that they answer for what they did. Without these leaches we can focus on pushing the country up.
At least you are honest, Jens!
Garga, Yes, your insight into Iran is priceless to those of us that live in totalitarian dictatorship’s run by Bolsheviks. Hard to get good information these days
i actually here the first time about this and it sounds like fake news
any pasdar who wants a “transfer” is unfit for his position he is unfit for many things and its not even in a linguistic sense acceptable in iran this kind of things again it shows the lack of understanding like always and what the enemies of irans should start to do is understanding the enemy and start first with farsi btw i would like to read the fake letter this is based on XD
This division between iran and iraq militia will benefit the US. 😤