Analysis of Shia Influence on Iraqi Foreign Policy

I believe the carrier of foreign policy in Iraq is

Shiism and the Shiites. This does not mean excluding

the other groups, but the vessel that carries policy

the foreign policy that guides foreign policy in Iraq

is undoubtedly—its vessel is Shiite,

and this is connected to the geographical nature you mentioned

and the connection to the Shiite majority is connected even

to the security institutions, which are run by

Shiite figures, and so on. This is a story, a fundamental story that has lasted twenty

two years. We have been working on it, meaning researching it, talking

about it. Of course, the geographical location

and religious diversity

—whatever you call them—all these are supporting factors for foreign policy,

for policy in general, but the primary carrier is

Shiism.

Our crisis in Iraq is a crisis connected to the fact that we must understand

that this war—Shiites and Shiism are part of its count

part of this war. The issue includes Iran, Iraq,

Lebanon, and the Resistance Axis, as Professor al-Abadi explained.

But Shiism is part of this war. When you

talk about the war, you cannot leave out the Shia or how the Shia understand

the nature of this conflict now taking place at the international and

regional levels. If you do not understand the Shia situation, you cannot. That is why I

was one of the things I discussed even with

Mr. Ali Khamenei. His question was, why do Iraqis escalate

I mean, why do they raise us to the summit, then bring us back down

and tell us, “Iran, get out, get out”? I told him, because you do not understand

the nature of the Shia character in Iraq. Iraq

is the heart of the Shia world. This is also an issue we must understand.

So if that is the case, we must understand the Shia,

understand Shia culture, and understand Iraqi Shia culture. We must

understand the complexities of the Shia social situation in Iraq

so that we can understand how foreign policy can be made. Without

understanding these complexities, foreign policy becomes meaningless.

It becomes

an addition.

So, it is a feminist representation with no value. Sorry, I don’t mean that it is—

I mean that failing to understand this complexity leads to detailed things

that are not the broader issues we are supposed to be thinking about.

And I believe, as I understand it, that now

if we want to resolve the problem in this conflict at the level

internationally, we have to understand how to resolve the internal Shiite conflict.

I mean, from 2003 onward, there

was no value, as Professor Ibrahim pointed out. I mean, there was no

real existence of anything called the Axis of Resistance. This grew

until it reached its peak, which we saw at the funeral procession for

the martyred leader Khamenei in Najaf.

Six million, eight million—it doesn’t matter what the numbers were, but without

a doubt