IRAQI Shiites are dominating in numbers the mass demonstrations being held in various Iraqi cities and towns. This is a clear indication that this huge crowd rejects the Iranian influence in Iraq, both directly and indirectly.

This is completely unusual, given that the regime in Iran attempted to portray itself in the last four decades as the representative and defender of Shiites all over the world, and that their supreme spiritual headquarters is in Qum in Iran and not Najaf in Iraq, as it has been historically.

Today, the notion of Iran being the shield of the Shiites in the world has fallen in Iraq. Iraqi protesters are denouncing every organization or format of the seditious regime.

This “change in mood” of the Arab Shiites has always existed even though their voice wasn’t heard due to the sedition-charged atmosphere which was based on the idea that there is a conspiracy against the existence of Shiites and that the Mullahs regime is working on eliminating historic grievances of Shiites to a point where it managed to depict them as immigrants in their countries.

Such rhetoric has started crumbling and the ugly facts through which the voice of Arab Shiites was forged is being exposed, especially with the Arab Shiites being in the frontline to confront the regime in Tehran.

History has documented the fact that majority of the Iraqi army fighting the Iranian soldiers in the war, which lasted for eight years, were Shiites. These records are well documented in the Iraqi archives.

The situation is no different in Lebanon. Despite the efforts of Hassan Nasrallah and his group to depict Shiites in Lebanon as being against the populist uprising, majority of the participants are residents of towns and villages in the south and east of Lebanon and they disprove such claims which are aimed at ensuring the armed militias remain in power.

These militias have been suppressing any opposition for a very long time in areas that they consider their environment. The observers of the Lebanese affairs have realized that the residents of these areas have also come out to protest in favor of the national unity and to denounce the influence of terrorist militias in their country.

Undoubtedly, those who are suffering from the Lebanese populace uprising and those who caught its wave or opposed it are trying to distort the voices of hundreds of thousands of Lebanese who reject the return to the previous status.

They are standing firm with their slogan “All means all”, and they will not be appeased when the voice of a significant caliber of their society, I mean the Shiites, is distorted in this uprising. That is exactly the stance taken by the Iraqis.

This is due to the fact that the issue in this country exceeds any image of corruption, nepotism, sectarian sedition, and control of the country’s wealth, in addition to the Revolutionary Guard’s practices through its representative Qasem Soleimani who is playing the role of occupation authority.

The Arab Shiites have brought down every imaginary claims adopted by the Mullahs regime which the latter used to achieve its expansionism scheme. If the regime had achieved it, it would have been the first to commit massacres against the followers of this sect, because their mentality differ from the Persian logic regarding the essence of the Shiite creed.

Therefore, the blood that the Iraqis are shedding today on the streets and squares is a clear declaration of the dying Persian expansionism scheme. It is clearer from the change made to Nasrallah’s statement “Khamenei is the Hussein of this era” into chants of “Khamenei is the villain of this era”.

By Ahmed Al-Jarallah

Editor-in-Chief, the Arab Times