Iranian Television Surge Of Violence In

Tehran Al-Alam Television in Arabic at 1330 GMT on 1 April broadcast its “Iraq Today” program which discussed the “escalating violence in Iraq.”

The guests were analyst Ali al-Yasiri and Hazim al-Samarra’i, a London-based political analyst. Later, Shaykh Muhammad Taqi al-Mawla, member of the parliament security and defense committee and a SCIRI leading figure, and Maryam al-Rayyis, an advisor to the Iraqi prime minister, joined the discussion over the telephone.

The presenter introduced the program with the following as the points of discussion: “What are the reasons behind the grave escalation of violence in Iraq although over two months have elapsed since the security plan was first implemented? What is the role of the occupation in the deterioration of the security situation? What is the significance of Saudi King Abdallah’s remarks that Iraq is under occupation? How to interpret this escalation in violence which coincided with calls by some political forces on Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to make concessions? Why has the Arab summit ignored Iraq and its state of lawlessness?”
The program contained a report which said that the recent blasts in Tall Afar and Baghdad had left some 400 people dead and about 1,000 wounded.

Al-Yasiri drew a gloomy picture of the situation in Iraq, noting the “support” which “terrorists” received from networks based in the UAE. He also referred to “Ba’thist groups in alliance with takfiri and Salafi groups operating in Egypt, Yemen and Sudan”. He further criticized the Iraqi political parties over their “failure to defend the interests of the Iraqi nation”, adding that the parliament was “passive” and had “failed” to meet the ambitions of the Iraqis.

He was of the opinion that it was right to focus on Baghdad in controling the security situation but that attention should also be paid to the other provinces.

Shaykh Muhammad Taqi al-Mawla attributed the deterioration in the security situation to, among other things, the “interference in Iraq’s affairs by neighbouring countries some other regional countries”. He stressed that the parliament was not weak but “some forces pretend to be part of the political process, while they in fact cooperate with or hatch terrorism”.

Hazim al-Samarra’i blamed the “occupation” for “inciting sectarian strife” to “justify its presence” in Iraq. He also criticized the security services for being “infiltrated” by “militias” and that some members of these services were involved in killing civilians following the Tall Afar attack.
Maryam al-Rayyis, Al-Maliki’s advisor, admitted that there were shortcomings, but stressed that there were also positive efforts by the security services to “eliminate terrorist groups”. She also praised the “encouraging” activity in the predominantly Sunni Province of Al-Anbar to face the insurgency.
(Description of Source: Tehran Al-Alam Television in Arabic — IRIB’s 24-hour Arabic news channel, targetting a pan-Arab audience).