West Unites to Demand Removal of Al-Maliki, Iran's Man in Baghdad

PARIS, June 24, 2014 /PRNewswire/ --

As the international community unites to urge the removal of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki from power in Iraq, the Iranian regime is doing all it can to ensure their puppet stays in office, Euro MP Struan Stevenson has said.

Even the US government had acknowledged that Maliki is the main cause of the current crisis in Iraq and must be replaced, he insisted.

In a press release on Iran's meddling in the Iraqi crisis, Stevenson, President of the European Parliament's Delegation for Relations with Iraq quoted President Barack Obama and other world leaders on the need for Maliki to go.

Mr Obama said: "It's not our job to choose Iraq's leaders.  But only leaders that can govern with an inclusive agenda are going to be able to truly bring the Iraqi people together and help them through this crisis." 

US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel also told a senate hearing on June 18: "This current government in Iraq has never fulfilled the commitments it made to bring a unity government together with the Sunnis, the Kurds and the Shia."

And General Martin Dempsey, Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the same hearing: "He is disappointed by the siege of the militants in Iraq. Iraq's leaders failed to unite for the good of their people."

Democrat Senator Dianne Feinstein, Chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, told the Defense Secretary: "The Maliki government, candidly, has got to go if you want any reconciliation."

And Republican Senator John McCain urged Obama to 'make it very clear to Maliki that his time is up'.

United States generals who have been involved in Iraq since 2003 offered the same opinion.

General Garner, the first civil governor of Iraq after the occupation of that country said: "We turned our backs on the Sunnis, who helped us in 2007-2008. Then we backed Maliki in 2010 with full knowledge that he's going to disenfranchise the Kurds, persecute the Sunnis and was really a puppet of the Iranians."

"Regretfully, US surrendered Iraq to Iran. In 2010, the United States and Iran were against the winner of the elections to form the government which was the Iraqiya Party - composed of Shiites and Sunnis. There we had a real opportunity but we missed it."

Mr Stevenson said that in such conditions, the Iranian regime is doing its 'utmost politically and militarily to save Maliki'.

He quoted Ali Akbar Velayatee, the advisor to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on international issues, as saying on June 20: "Iran has offered assistance to Iraq. Any assistance that Nouri al-Maliki's government, as the lawful representative of Iraq, would request, we shall oblige without any restrictions. Iran trained the Syrian army and can do the same in Iraq."

Khamenei has ordered the terrorist Qods Force to employ its command resources for the suppression of the Iraqi people and to save the Iraqi prime minister, Mr Stevenson, President of the, European Iraqi Freedom Association (EIFA) said.

Khamenei has stated that hegemony over Iraq is of strategic importance for Iran and that the governance of a 'Shiite government' in that country plays a decisive role in the survival of his regime and that the 'defeat of Maliki will be a strategic setback for the Islamic Republic system'. the MEP and president of the EU Parliament's Delegation for Relations with Iraq, revealed.

He added: "Qassem Soleimani, the Commander of the notorious Qods Force, together with 200 Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) officers of various ranks are now stationed in Iraq to supervise the developments up close. These elements, along with the Iranian regime's Iraqi paid hands such as Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq and Kata'eb Hezbollah, are inspecting different places in Diyala and Salahaddin. 

"We have stated time and again that the Iranian regime and its puppet prime minister Maliki, are the main sources of the problems in Iraq and through genocide of the Sunnis, the barbaric suppression of dissidents and prevalent state corruption, have left the country in ruins and are pushing it to an internal sectarian war.

"We also constantly emphasised that any election conducted by Maliki would be neither free nor fair. We had called for ending the meddling of the Iranian regime in Iraq, the removal of Maliki from power, the formation of an inclusive government, and the holding of elections under UN supervision.

"This had been the will of the Iraqi people for a long time and it has been regrettably ignored. Now that it is abundantly clear that any solution requires Maliki's removal, the USA and the EU should cease all assistance to him, not allowing him to prolong the war and genocidal massacre of his own people using Western assistance.