Iran’s terrorist foreign arms and militias undermine Arab stability and threaten international peace

The mouthpieces of the Iranian regime came out to brag about Tehran’s militias in Arab lands, as Ali Gholam Ali Rashid, commander of the Revolutionary Guard’s Khatam al-Anbiya, revealed that his country has six armies abroad to defend it.

Rashid said in a ceremony held Sunday inside the headquarters of the General Staff that former Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani had announced three months before his death that he had organized six armies outside Iranian territory with the support of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the General Staff of the Army, according to reports by Mehr News Agency, which is close to the Revolutionary Guard.

Rashid also claimed that these armies include the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) in Iraq, Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Hamas and Jihad movements in Palestine, forces defending the Syrian regime, and the Houthi militia in Yemen, indicating that these forces represent a deterrent force for Tehran and carry ideological inclinations, and their mission is to defend Iran against any attack.

It is noteworthy that the United States assassinated Soleimani and the deputy head of the PMF, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, in a strike near Baghdad International Airport on January 3, 2020.

Rashid’s words are a clear acknowledgment of Tehran’s financing of militias in the region, following continuous denials, especially about the presence of Iran’s forces in Yemen and other Arab countries, and its impact on their foreign policy.

The Yemeni government considered these statements about Tehran's role in the Houthi coup, its provision of military support to the terrorist militia and its involvement in fighting on the ground, as a flagrant violation of international laws and charters and a blatant challenge to the will of the international community.

In Syria, the number of Iranian militias there is estimated at tens of thousands, specifically the area extending between the border cities of Al-Bukamal with Iraq and Deir Ezzor, including Pakistani and Afghan forces, which participated strongly in the civil war ten years ago.

In Iraq, the PMF includes tens of thousands who receive salaries from the Iraqi government but are under Iranian orders. The US administration accuses some of these militias in Iraq of targeting military headquarters that include the international coalition forces. Washington has also repeatedly accused these factions of trying to target the US embassy in Baghdad with missiles, as well as committing massacres against the Sunni population and kidnapping thousands of them in the clear absence of the central government's authority over it.

Washington has officially confirmed more than once that these Iranian-backed armed factions are destabilizing Iraq, undermining the prestige and authority of the state, and are also involved in the assassination of activists, media professionals and opponents in Baghdad and Iraq’s southern governorates.