The appointment of Brigadier
General Iraj Masjedi provides a clear insight into the terrorist nature of the
mullahs’ intentions.
Iran’s
new ambassador to Iraq is part of a terrorist network, an advisor of the
notorious Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) Quds Force. Brigadier General IrajMasjedi replaces Hassan Danaii Far, himself a senior IRGC member.
“The
Iranian embassy in Baghdad is considered a strategic post outside the country
and the ambassador is a highly important figure,” notes the state-run Asre
Iran daily.
 |
| Iranian Revolutionary Guards. (Photo: © ATTA KENARE/AFP/Getty Images). Inset:Brigadier General Iraj Masjedi (Photo: Twitter) |
Masjedi is often quoted by Iran’s media as a senior advisor to the terrorist Quds Force commander Qassem Suleimani, also sanctioned by the West and under a travel ban.
According to the Saudi news
site Al Arabiya, “The
Revolutionary Guards considers the Iranian embassy in Baghdad of strategic
importance within the states that are subject to Iranian influence.
“Since the fall of the
former Iraqi regime in 2003, all the ambassadors of Iran to Iraq were members
of the Revolutionary Guards.”
In contrast to
international political norms, Iran’s embassy in Iraq is not under foreign
ministry authority. The IRGC enjoys complete hegemony over this diplomatic
post.
Far’s
specific mission in Iraq was literally to purge all
members of the Iranian opposition, the People's Mojahedin Organization
of Iran (PMOI/MEK), through attacks launched by the Quds Force and
affiliated Iraqi proxy groups. The MEK was able to resettle all its members to
Europe (which is a different discussion).
Masjedi
has a dark record of playing a major role in suppressing the Iraqi people and
specifically leading genocidal attacks targeting
locals of Diyala Province, a melting pot bordering Iran where Sunnis, Shiites, Kurds and
others used to live in peace prior to Iran’s covert occupation of Iraq from
2003 onward.
The highly-respected, Saudi-founded
pan-Arab news outlet Asharq Al-Awsat writes, “…commanders of the Quds Force
who supervise the Shi’ite militia leadership in Iraq are Brigadier Generals
Mohammed Shahlaei, Mojtaba Abtahi, Iraj Masjedi and Ahmad Forouzandeh, who are
all directly supervised by the Quds Forces Commander Qasem Soleimani.”
Masjedi is a loathed figure
in Iraq for his efforts to completely restructure the province’s social fabric.
He is known for his remarks justifying Iran’s military presence in Iraq.
“The
enemy charged towards Iraqi cities and reached Samara and Karbala, and near
Iran’s borders in Diyala. And you expect us to remain silent?” he said.
“We
must strategically deepen our struggle,” Masjedi explained on January
31t, 2015, shedding
light into the dangerous mentality of an individual now appointed as Iran’s top
diplomat in Iraq.
This
statement is significant when taken together with the fact that Iran remains
designated as the leading state sponsor of terrorism and
has taken advantage of the Obama administration’s failed
policy of delivering Mesopotamia on a silver platter to
Tehran’s mullahs.
The
IRGC has stationed around 7,000 armed Quds
Force-affiliated elements in various cities across Iraq.
Masjedi strongly agrees
with senior Iranian officials who underscore the necessity for Iran to support
Syrian dictator Bashar Assad and send troops and Shiite militias to the Levant.
“War
in that region [i.e., Syria] is in ways providing security for
[Iran],” he said.
The
people of Aleppo and Diyala have no doubts about the active role
that Iran, the IRGC and the Quds Force are playing in the region.
Masjedi
is also known for his comments regarding the battle for the city of Fallujah, a
former Islamic State stronghold west of Baghdad, emphasizing, “The
involvement of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards in the battle of Fallujah was
in order to preserve Iran’s status as a Shiite center in the world. We are
defending Iran and its borders.”
“The
next step of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps was been the formation of
the massive Basij [mobilization] force that is faithful and a friend of Islamic
Iran, such as the Iraqi Hashd al Shabi [PMF],
which has been established as a powerful army with our organizing and our
experience in the Sacred Defense [Iran-Iraq War],” Masjedi said according to a Long War Journal report.
“Many of the militias that
are part of the PMF remain hostile to the United States, and some have
threatened to attack U.S. interests in the region. One of the more influential
militias within the PMF, Hezbollah Brigades, is listed as a Foreign Terrorist
Organization. Several influential PMF leaders, including the operational leader
of the PMF, are listed by the U.S. as global terrorists,” the LWJ report adds.
Iran’s new ambassador
appointment in Iraq provides a clear insight into the terrorist nature of the
mullahs’ intentions, and Tehran’s specific objectives of continuing a policy of
lethal meddling in Iraq -- while using the country as a springboard for further
intervention in Syria and beyond.
This is a challenge the new
U.S. administration and Congress should meet with a firm policy calling to end
Iran’s destructive role in the Middle East.
“The
regime in Tehran is the source of the crisis in the region and killings in
Syria; it has played the greatest role in the expansion and continuation of
ISIS. Peace and tranquility in the region can only be achieved by evicting this
regime from the region,”said Iranian
opposition leader Maryam Rajavi, President of the National Council ofResistance of Iran (NCRI).
Shahriar Kia is a political analyst and member of the Iranian
opposition, the People’s Mujahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI, which is alsoknown as the MEK). He graduated from North Texas University
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