Al-Alam TV channel reported that the Iraqi Prime Minister, Haider al-Abadi, general commander of the Iraqi armed forces, has declared that the public Mobilization Forces “Shiites Militias” have officially become part of the Iraqi armed forces. This means that these forces will be under his direct control, and will be in contact with both Interior and Defense Ministries.
Practically, this is old news. According to the Public Mobilization Forces leaders, after the Tikrit operations a year ago, the Iraqi Cabinet has agreed to include these militias in the armed forces structure that should report to the Prime Minister personally. Public Mobilization Forces announced that the Americans’ participation is unnecessary in Tikrit operations, which was opposed by the Prime Minister. After the emergence of such disagreements, the Iraqi government sought to assume control over these militias through the aforementioned decree.
Recently, pressure on the Iraqi government has increased to dismantle these forces. While the Iraqi Prime Minister disregarded these internal and external requests and has implemented the resolution.
The Iranian media used to call these forces as the “Iraqi Public Mobilization Forces”. The process of forming and structuring these militias by Iran are similar to those of “Hezbollah”, which made them called in Iraq as the “Iranian Mobilization.”
These militias were established under the orders of Ali Sistani, the Iraqi Shiite traditional reference in July 2014. Nevertheless, Qassem Suleimani was the first to guide and direct these militias.
On June 7th, 2015, Mashreq News Website, a close mean to the Iranian military institutions, published a report quoting from Al-Akhbar Lebanese newspaper saying, “There is no doubt that Iran has been running these militias, and aims at taking control of these groups in terms of organizing, training, armament, and is still doing that”
Abu Mahdi Al-Mohandes, deputy commander of Public Mobilization Forces, who is being called by Qassem Suleimani “Commander”, stated to the same newspaper last July that “Khamenei has ordered brothers in the Revolutionary Guards to support the Public Mobilization Forces in terms of armament, ammunition, advisory assistances, and planning.”
Before the formation of the Public Mobilization Forces, Iran had undertaken the formation of smaller groups, like (Kataeb Alkharasani), which enhanced the Iranian political and military domination over Iraq and allowed unification of these militias.
Public Mobilization Forces were instrumental in defending Iran’s borders. Ahmed Reza Bordestan, the commander of ground forces of the Iranian Army, announced in May that Iran has succeeded in defeating some ISIS groups on the Iranian borders with the help of these militias.
These militias play a major role in the Iraqi politics. They called the Iraqi political forums to respect the ballot boxes and made proposals about the shape of the political government. Of course, this active role of Public Mobilization Forces serves the Iranian interests and ambitions.
Recently, some news was released about the possibility of dispatching these militias from Iraq to Syria because of the big battles in eastern Aleppo. According to the Lebanese Newspaper, these militias will assist Iran, Russia, and Hezbollah and the Syrian regime in their war against the opposition forces.
Human Rights Watch accused these militias of committing war crimes in Iraq last year. They were also condemned and faced negative reaction in the Arab world. Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa, Bahraini Foreign Minister described these groups as “Doomed Sectarian Forces.” Adel Al-Jubeir, Saudi Foreign Minister called to dismantle these forces and accused them of escalating sectarian conflicts. This request was faced by rejection in Iraq and Iran who will not give up its proxy bug easily.
This year In May, the conference of achievements of the Public Mobilization Forces was held at the University of Tehran. The conference handled victories of these militias against the ISIS. In fact, Iran has succeeded in forming another Hezbollah in Iraq. The bottom line is that if the Iranian officials can’t claim of exporting the Iranian revolution, they can claim that they have exported the Revolutionary Guards to Lebanon, Yemen, Iraq, and Syria.
Source: Iran Wire
