TEHRAN (Iran News) – A political analyst from London said the embassies of the US and UK in Baghdad are taking advantage of Iraq’s poor economic conditions following the defeat of ISIL by “deliberately stirring up trouble” in the Arab country.

“If there are insufficient jobs, there must be some form of basic income. Yes, the foreign embassies — US, UK and the Netherlands– are deliberately stirring up trouble but that is always easy to do when people are economically insecure. Also all American, British and Israeli forces should be kicked out,” Rodney Shakespeare told Tasnim when asked about the reason behind recent sporadic unrest in Iraq that has led to several casualties.

Iraqi Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi on Thursday expressed regret that the ongoing protests have become violent, saying he is ready to meet with representatives of the protesters to discuss their demands.

Speaking on Thursday night, the Iraqi prime minister said certain elements have been able to derail the protests from their peaceful path.

The unrest comes as millions of pilgrims are preparing to travel to the Iraqi holy cities of Najaf and Karbala to attend Arbaeen, marking the fortieth day after the martyrdom of their third Imam, Hussein ibn Ali (AS).

US Shifting to Political Rather Than Military Divide-and-Conquer Strategy

Kevin Barret, an author and analyst from Madison, also told Tasnim that “as Iraq grows more stable and confident, and gets its finances and infrastructure rebuilt, it grows more and more potentially independent.”

He added that an “independent Iraq will inevitably lean towards or join the Axis of Resistance to imperialism and Zionism, for two reasons: First, the Shiite-majority population of Iraq has obvious affinities with other members of the Axis of Resistance; and second and most importantly, if Iraq wants to return to the path of using its resources to benefit its population, it will ultimately need to help eject parasitical outsiders from the region. And the only group of countries that is working toward that end, rather than cooperating with the invaders, occupiers, and plunderers, is the Axis of Resistance.”

“The US-led, Zionist-instigated war on Iraq was designed to cripple and destabilize that country. The invaders pretend to fight terrorism. They pretend to be working to stabilize the situation. But even as one side of the US-led Occupation helped the Iraqi government fight takfiri terrorists, the other side was sponsoring the terrorism. Today, they seem to be shifting to a political rather than military divide-and-conquer strategy, by sponsoring color revolution style protests designed by foreign embassies to keep Iraq unstable and unable to take its place as a genuinely independent country working towards full regional independence,” Barret said.

US, Other Western Spy Agencies Have Long History of Interfering in Domestic Affairs of Nations

Dennis Etler, political analyst and a former professor of anthropology based in California, said the US and other Western intelligence services have a “long history of interfering in the domestic affairs of nations” they wish to control by fomenting anti-government protests. They try to destabilize targeted countries in the hope of advancing their own agenda in regions where they wish to assert or maintain political influence”.

He further told Tasnim that Iran has recently pledged to further support Iraq’s reconstruction after the defeat of ISIS and the US and its allies want to disrupt these friendly relations and the recent riots can be seen as an attempt to sabotage Iraq’s attempts at reconstruction by help of foreign embassies.

“A failed Iraqi state serves the interests of US imperialism in its attempts to contain Iran’s influence in the region,” he said.