Iran not letting Iraq go without a fight
Iraqi protesters have had enough of Iran’s heavy hand, but don’t expect the Iranians to pack up and go home.
Iraqi protesters are not letting up in their calls for the removal of Iraq’s government, with the largest demonstrations so far on Friday. More than 250 have been killed in the last month, with thousands wounded. The mostly youthful demonstrators want Iran out of Iraq — a sign of a hopeful "post-sectarian" turn in Iraqi politics. But don’t expect Iran, with its many levers of influence and disruption, to concede defeat and withdraw.
The understandable impatience of the Iraqi street
Iraq President Barham Salih, in an interview with Al-Monitor just days before the first round of demonstrations in Iraq, cited the need to provide jobs for young people as the “real mission" of regional leaders, adding that corruption is the “political economy of conflict.”
Soon afterward, Iraq’s young peple took to the streets, with only a brief break for the religious Arbaeen holiday.
