Protests have been growing in Iraq over Iraq over corruption, lack of basic services, Iranian influence. Demonstrators closed Najaf airport in southern Iraq, preventing an IRGC-affiliated Mahan Air flight heading for Mashhad (NE Iran) to takeoff, reported Iran News Wire. People in Iraq are also fed up with Tehran’s mullahs.
Iraq’s top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, has weighed in publicly on the side of the protesters, stating they are facing an “extreme lack of public services”.
#Iran-backed Asaib ahl al-Haq blames #Saudi Arabia, UAE for funding attack on its offices in southern #Iraq and protests damaging public property. Difficult to see how this will end.
— jane arraf (@janearraf) July 14, 2018
Kuwait Airways suspends all flights to Najaf and Basra airports due to ongoing violent protests in Iraq's southern provinces. #BasraProtests https://t.co/ZzOnAV1xDR pic.twitter.com/hpHvE1YcXW
— Kurdistan 24 English (@K24English) July 14, 2018
Interestingly, Iraqi parliament member and firebrand popular Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, fresh off a surprise victory in the May elections wherein he focused on an anti-corruption message, has recently proposed privatizing electrical services for the country. He’s suggested outsourcing to “foreign, non-occupying” businesses, in statements that implied companies based in the West should be banned from operating in Iraq, reported Zero Hedge.
