It felt like we were back in the darkest hours of Iraq’s recent history. The Green Zone, the space created in the center of Baghdad by the Americans during the occupation, is cordoned off in the early morning by tanks and troop transport vehicles. Soldiers get out. They spread out and take over the entire neighborhood. At the same time, at least 47 people, including several deputies and officials, notably within the Ministry of Oil, were arrested in Baghdad and other regions of the country. The new Prime Minister does not mess around with corruption. Remember that Iraq is among the leading countries in the world most affected by this scourge.
Ali al-Zaïdi also made it his mission to combat the influence within the political apparatus of Shiite militias largely subservient to Iran. He is not the first Iraqi politician to come to power with similar wishes. Except that there, he intends to carry out his threat. This is audacious, especially since with the United States’ attack on Iran and the death, in the first hours of the conflict, of Supreme Guide Ali Khamenei, the entire Shiite world came together. Iraq is made up of 60% Shiites. The country has six of the most sacred sanctuaries, including Najaf, the true Vatican of the Shiites, and Karbala, where the founding battle of this religion took place. Suffice it to say that the Shiite militias, the only Iranian proxies not to have suffered attacks from the Americans and Israel, unlike the Yemeni Houthis and the Lebanese Hezbollah, constitute a formidable force. It is they, we remember, who intervened against Daesh in 2014, preventing the jihadists from going as far as Baghdad. Subsequently, they largely contributed to the reconquest of the main cities of Iraq. Their aura in the country remains strong and their connections with Iran have strengthened in recent times.
85 million dollars seized from the Deputy Minister of Oil
It was the confessions of the Deputy Minister of Oil in charge of refining, Adnan al-Jumaïli, arrested last May, which ignited the powder. When the deputy minister was apprehended, $85 million was seized from his home. But that’s not all. He began to speak, disclosing to investigators a list of more than a hundred personalities, of all persuasions, involved in corruption cases. Hence the organization of the dragnet.
American support
Coincidentally or not with the timing, the operation coincided with the visit to Iraq by Abbas Araghtchi, the Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs. Did the new Prime Minister mean by this to remind us that he is the master in his country? Another objective that he often puts forward: the reestablishment of the Iraqi state’s arms monopoly. A wishful thinking, even if the Iraqi Shiite militias have until September 30 to comply. In a context where Iran has strengthened itself with the war, the operation could be at least as risky and illusory as the request made to Hezbollah by the Lebanese authorities and the Americans to surrender their weapons.
The United States promised to support the Iraqi Prime Minister in his delicate task. Two weeks ago, he received Donald Trump’s special envoy, Tom Barrack. Ali al-Zaïdi is due to go to Washington in mid-July. It remains to be verified whether this somewhat too visible support does not give the impression that it is the United States which is giving the orders. The Prime Minister could well find himself isolated. In these times of commemoration when the remains of the Iranian Supreme Leader will be transported to the holy places of Najaf and Karbala on July 7, the situation risks becoming tense. As for the disarmament of the militias, it seems illusory at this stage as the geostrategic situation of the region has changed, with an Iran which frightens its neighbors who prefer to make agreements with it rather than see their economies ruined if the war were to start again.
