DIWANIYAH, Iraq, Jan 1, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – For months, their rallying cry
has been “We want our country!” Now, Iraq’s anti-government demonstrators
insist they won’t let the dramatic escalation between the United States and
Iran steal their thunder.
The youth-dominated demonstrations have rocked Baghdad and Iraq’s Shiite-
majority south since early October in outrage over government graft, a lack
of jobs and the political influence of neighbouring Iran.
They have long been wary of political factions trying to coopt their
movement and are now digging in their heels even further, saying their cause
will not be derailed by a looming proxy war between Washington and Iran.
Tensions have escalated since a volley of rockets killed an American
contractor in Iraq last week. This prompted the US to respond days later with
air strikes that killed more than two dozen pro-Iran fighters of Iraq’s
Hashed al-Shaabi military network.
On Tuesday, pro-Tehran demonstrators attempted to storm the US embassy in
Baghdad, just across the river Tigris from the main anti-regime protest camp
in Tahrir Square.
“Some sides are trying to drag the protests in other directions,” said
Alaa Sattar, a demonstrator in Tahrir.
“But the position of the protests in Tahrir has been very clear since
October 1: Iraq should not be an arena for score-settling or US-Iranian
conflicts,” he told AFP.
Demonstrators would stay in the streets, Sattar pledged, until early
parliamentary elections produce a government “loyal only to Iraq”.
Baghdad has close political and military ties to both Tehran and
Washington, but those two powers have been at loggerheads since the US
withdrew from a landmark nuclear deal with Iran in 2018.
Iraq has feared that a proxy war between its two allies could play out on
its soil, destabilising a country only just getting back on its feet after
years of unrest and a devastating fight against the Islamic State group.
– ‘No horse in this race’ –
Following IS’s defeat in 2017, Iraqis hoped to see their economy recover,
services improve and to have more jobs for youth.
But with little improvement two years on, many have taken to the streets,
pointing the finger at an entrenched elite they say is corrupt, inept and
beholden to Iran.
When the protests were met with violence, demonstrators accused pro-Tehran
factions in the Hashed of trying to crush their movement and intimidate
activists.
The Hashed, meanwhile, has cast the rallies as a plot by the US and other
powers to bring “chaos” to Iraq.
This tug-of-war over Iraq should add more fuel to the fire of the
protests, said Husaam al-Kaabi, a demonstrator in Iraq’s shrine city of
Najaf.
“What protesters want is a change in the political situation, which
regional and international factions rule right now,” he told AFP.
“This is the main reason we went out into the streets — so that the Iraqi
government is the decision-maker,” Kaabi added.
He suspected outside powers of trying to “exploit” the anti-government
protests for their own political gains, adding slyly, “We know what they are
trying to do.”
In Diwaniyah, another protest hotspot, 57-year-old Ali Mahdi said the
demonstrators would not veer away from their central demands.
“Protesters can see what’s happening in this proxy war between Iran and
the US on Iraqi soil. Iraq does not have a horse in this race,” said Mahdi.
– ‘Failed marriage’ –
Protesters worry the new tensions could distract political figures away
from addressing their movement’s demands or, worse, bring violence to protest
camps.
Around 460 people have died since the rallies began and several thousand
activists have been detained by security forces, but demonstrators have
remained camped out in streets and squares.
Protesters are bracing themselves for even tougher days ahead.
“The biggest challenge facing demonstrators now across the country is
holding onto the stance we took when we came out into the streets, and not
getting pulled into a proxy war on behalf of America or Iran on Iraqi soil,”
said Ali Tah, a demonstrator in the port city of Basra.
“This is an attempt to end the protests in Iraq,” he said.
Tah told AFP that regional rivalries had brought instability to his
homeland, so the movement should double down on its demands to build an
independent Iraq.
“What is this failure of an Iraqi government if not the child of the
marriage of US and Iranian interests since 2003?” he told AFP.
“That’s why we’re insisting on our demands, and are staying in our protest
camps until they are met.”