Description
“The religious conservative part of Shia Iraq has always been susceptible to Iranian influence, though not all Shia are pro-Iran,” Andreas Krieg, an associate professor at the Defence Studies Department of King’s College London, told Al Jazeera. “Iraq is not a liberal democracy, but it’s a democracy of sorts. As a democracy, it represents the interests of the majority of the people in the country.”“Much of it has to do with the fact that the border between Iraq and Iran is very porous,” said Krieg. “Iraqi forces don’t make any effort, and don’t have any capacity, to control the border effectively. So, Iraq is still in many ways overly controlled and subverted by Iranian influence.”
Such projects are not tied to any roadmap and “very little that’s tangible has happened from the Gulf side in terms of turning Iraq around”, Krieg said.
“The Gulf has really put all collaboration for the time being on ice, which has undermined some of the progress that might have been made under the previous Prime Minister al-Kadhimi, who was seen as being more pro-Arab, pro-Gulf, and more critical of Iran. But obviously, he lost,” explained Krieg. “There will be elections soon again. That might bring al-Kadhimi back. But we don’t know that. The problem is there’s an unstable political regime in Iraq that keeps pivoting from one side to the other depending on who’s in office.”
Krieg continued, “We have a constant shift in Prime Ministers whereby one might pivot toward the Arab Gulf and other might pivot toward Iran.”
| Period | 20 Mar 2023 |
|---|---|
| Held at | Al Jazeera, Qatar |
Keywords
- Iraq
- Iran
- GCC
- Gulf