Penalizing protesters… Iran tampers with "water and electricity" to restore influence in

Mohammed Shaat

Iraq is a major target for Iran, and Tehran is hard at work to maintain its influence in the country, manipulating its destinies, and political decisions. In order to achieve these goals, Iran has established entities and militias that owe allegiance to Tehran inside Iraq.

Recently, Iran has felt that that effect is receding, following protests in several Iraqi cities against Tehran's interference in the internal affairs of the country. Protesters demanded an end to Iran's dominance over Iraq, as well as dismantling the pro-Tehran entities. Outrage has led the protesters to set the Iranian embassy in Basra, south, on fire.

The Iranian regime followed up these developments closely and with deep worry, and soon launched schemes to control the fury. Yet, Iraqis' awareness has rejected all such endeavors, and the protesters insisted on their demands, mainly national independence, and ending Iran's domination in Iraq. This has led the Iranian regime to fuel the problems.

Leverages

The Iranian regime began using various leverages to force the Iraqi people to accept the fait accompli, and bow to Tehran's ascendancy. Soon it cut off electricity supplies to baffle those opposing Iran's presence in Iraq, and to pose more pressure on the political currents seeking the formation of an independent government, free of Tehran's influence.

Over the years, Tehran has set the ground for this leverage it is using at present, namely hampering the construction of electricity plants in Iraq, so that it can remain the only  force that controls  power supplies there. This has been substantiated through the recent situation in Basra, as Tehran fabricated a power crisis following elections that saw a decline of the groups intrinsically related to Tehran.

In addition, Tehran has come to employ a new leverage, cutting off water supplies to Iraq. Many Iraqi cities and towns came to severely suffer from water contamination, or shortage.

"An approximate 7 billion cubic metres will be cut towards the western and northern borders of Iraq on the order of the Supreme Leader, and the allocation of USD8 billion to ministries of energy and agriculture to control the water movement," assistant to Iran's agriculture minister, Ali Murad Akbar said, according to the online newspaper, Asr Iran website.

Tehran justified the move by announcing that the quantities of water would be used for three major projects across Iran.

Basra was the hardest-hit, and the governorate was the scene of a huge uprising against Tehran's interference. It was proved that Iran had ill intentions behind shutting off water supplies, mainly penalizing protesters, retaliating against the anti-Tehran protests, and setting the embassy in Basra, and the pictures of the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei ablaze.

(Feras Elias)

Intimidating henchmen

Iran has made its allies in Iraq always feel that they are under pressure whenever they get away a little from its policies, or rather the "red lines' Tehran has set for them, Iraqi political analyst Feras Elias said in exclusive statements to Al-Marjie (The Reference).

Iran fully realizes that if its followers are left to act freely, this will cost it a lot in Iraq, he strssed.

Elias noted that Iran's influence in the Middle East is facing hard tests, and this is why Tehran continuously tends to make the best use of all leverages in Iraq to realize the aspired goals there.

In addition to security domination in the country through militias, and the colossal impact on the political parties and currents, Tehran has come to realize the significance of other instrumental tools to boost the impact, he said..

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A strategic weapon

According to Elias, cutting off the power and water supplies from Iraq has two political dimensions, the first of which is influencing the formation of a new government in Iraq, delivering a message to Premier-designate Adel Abdul- Mahdi to carefully consider Iran's special status in Iraq.

The other is related to Iran's military strategy, namely the possibility of using  water reservoirs as a weapon, to boost the effectiveness of Tehran's naval strategy in case the country is targeted in a ground offensive across the Arabian Gulf.