Foreign Meddling Conspicuous in Basra Unrest

A senior official said there are traces of foreign agents and warmongers in the region behind the attack on Iran’s consulate in Basra.

“There are clear traces of the complicity of foreign agents in the arson attack on the consulate general of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Basra,” said Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, a special aide on International affairs to the Majlis speaker, in a tweet on Sunday, Mehr News Agency reported.

“British Shia and Saudi Wahhabism won’t be allowed to drag Iraq into chaos. Tehran-Baghdad relations are strategic,” the former deputy foreign minister said.

In Iran’s political parlance, British Shia refers to a number of Shia clerics based in the United Kingdom that have been critical of Tehran’s regional stances in the past.

The remark came two days after an angry mob stormed the Iranian consulate in Iraqi southern city of Basra on Friday evening before setting the building alight.

Only one day earlier, demonstrators attacked several government buildings in the city, including Basra’s provincial headquarters.

The protests were over lack of public service, inappropriate provision of electricity, poor infrastructures and inadequate civil services.

Meanwhile, foreign news outlets that often broadcast negative propaganda against Iran, are trying to portray the violence and public protests as an opposition to  Iranian meddling in Iraq.