In reality, however, Iraq has become the playground for Iran-sponsored Shia jihadist groups and militias who control every kind of industry imaginable, from a Shia clergy-backed illicit sex trade that sells girls as young as 9-years-old, to a drug trafficking cartel that controls Iraq’s porous borders with Iran and smuggles copious amounts of narcotics.
hina and Iran have been building an increasingly close economic, political and security partnership since the mid-1990s, when China emerged as Iran’s partner of choice for its energy projects in both the nuclear field and hydrocarbons.
Interestingly, Blinken called for the foreign ministers and envoys from Iran plus a number of other countries (China, India, Pakistan, and Russia) to join the US in discussing a “unified approach to supporting peace in Afghanistan”.
he killing of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis by a US UAV strike in Baghdad has changed the course of tensions between Iran and the US.
It was speculated that some groups close to Iran could have been behind the attacks on the protesters as the demonstrators were strongly against Iranian influence on Iraq.
S President Donald Trump’s anti-Iran stance has grown dangerous since he abandoned the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action), or the nuclear deal, in May 2018.