Iran steps up efforts to change Iraq's geography

Iran works tooth and nail to maintain influence in Iraq. It does this by creating entities that implement its agenda in the Arab country.

Iran looks, meanwhile, with concern to ongoing Arab efforts to bring Iraq back to the Arab fold. These efforts seek to liberate Iraq of the Farsi hegemony that has led to an unprecedented deterioration in the conditions of the Iraqis.

Iran's new plan for controlling Iraq depends on dividing the country along sectarian lines. By doing this, Tehran wants to ensure that it will maintain its influence on specific parts of Iraq.

Establishing a religious province

According to a number of reports, the Iranian ambassador to Baghdad, Iraj Masjedi, works to establish a new religious province in Iraq. He wants the new province, the reports say, to include Samarra, Balad and Dujail.

The plan will divide the northern Iraqi province of Saladin into two entities. The borders of the new province will start at the Tigris River and end near the border of Iraqi capital Baghdad.

Masjedi travelled to Samarra on Tuesday and met Governor Amar Gabr as well as a number of officials from the province. This is the Iranian ambassador's second visit to Samarra. Before he left for Baghdad, Masjedi distributed gifts to province officials, according to the reports.

Observers say, meanwhile, that the dubious moves of the Iranian ambassador aim at dividing Iraq for real and creating new Shiite provinces in the country. This, they add, will create major demographic change in Iraq.

Messing with geography

Iranian intentions in Iraq are not yet clear and more is yet to come in the coming days, according to Iraqi political analyst Feras Elias.

He told al-Marjie that the visit the Iranian ambassador paid to Samarra unveiled some of these intentions, namely the creation of new Shiite provinces in Iraq.

"This is only a reflection of the sectarian policies Iran has been pursuing in Iraq since 2003," Elias said.

He said Iran has been trying to change the political, administrative and geographical map of Iraq since 2014 when it forced the Iraqi government to take some administrative divisions out of the control of the national police.

Elias revealed that Iran had controlled Sunni properties in some of the cities that will be included in the new province.

"It also bought a lot of land in these cities," Elias said.

He expected Iran to move Shiite families to the areas it bought so that these areas can turn into Iranian influence enclaves that serve the Iranian agenda.