{"id":14415,"date":"2018-09-09T03:29:03","date_gmt":"2018-09-09T03:29:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=14415"},"modified":"2018-09-09T03:29:03","modified_gmt":"2018-09-09T03:29:03","slug":"us-lacks-leverage-as-assault-on-syrian-enclave-looms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=14415","title":{"rendered":"US lacks leverage as assault on Syrian enclave looms"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\nBAGHDAD: Iran was accused on Saturday of hijacking protests in the Iraqi city of Basra in an effort to sow chaos, disrupt oil exports and pave the way for an administration in Baghdad that supports Tehran.<\/p>\n

\nThe accusations followed four days of protests in which at least 12 people died, and culminated in the Iranian Consulate being set on fire on Friday night.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cOur intelligence suggests that the aim is to drag the Shiite factions into fighting each other in Basra,\u201d a senior national security official told Arab News.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cIt is all about blocking oil exports, so they have to take Basra out of Baghdad\u2019s control to reach that goal. There are no clear details so far but we have been connecting the lines.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nBasra has the largest oil fields in Iraq, and its revenues are the backbone of the Iraqi economy. Destabilizing security there is in the interests of many local and regional parties as political maneuvering continues in an effort to form a new government in Baghdad.<\/p>\n

\nLocal tribes in southern Iraq are concerned that the Basra protests, originally about inadequate water and power supplies and poor public services, are providing cover for political and armed conflict between the Shiite political rivals competing to control the next administration.<\/p>\n

\nThey now believe the protests have lost their legitimacy, and called for them to end.<\/p>\n

\nHowever, there was more violence on Saturday when Basra airport was targeted by rocket fire. Iraqi security sources said three Katyusha rockets hit the perimeter of the airport, although no damage or casualties were reported.<\/p>\n

\nIn Iraq\u2019s Parliament, the two leading political blocs called on Prime Minister Haider Abadi to resign, after MPs held an emergency meeting on the unrest.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cWe demand the government apologize to the people and resign immediately,\u201d said Hassan Al-Aqouli, spokesman for the list of populist cleric Moqtada Sadr that won the most seats in the May election.<\/p>\n

\nAhmed Al-Assadi, spokesman for the second-largest list, the Conquest Alliance, condemned \u201cthe government\u2019s failure to resolve the crisis in Basra.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nAbadi defended his record, described the unrest as \u201cpolitical sabotage\u201d and said the crisis over public services was being exploited for political ends.<\/p>\n

\nAt a Cabinet meeting earlier, ministers agreed to send a delegation to Basra, and Abadi ordered an investigation into the security forces \u201cfor not fulfilling their duties\u201d in protecting government buildings and the Iranian consulate. The heads of Basra Operations Command and the Basra Police were both sacked.<\/p>\n

\nBasra\u2019s streets were mostly quiet as security officials re-imposed a curfew from 4 p.m., and there was a heavy presence of security forces.<\/p>\n

\nThe unrest has thrust Iraq into a major crisis at a time when politicians are vying to form a new government after May\u2019s inconclusive election. The new parliament met for the first time on Monday, but failed to elect a speaker, much less name a new prime minister.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BAGHDAD: Iran was accused on Saturday of hijacking protests in the Iraqi city of Basra in an effort to sow chaos, disrupt oil exports and pave the way for an administration in Baghdad that supports Tehran. The accusations followed four days of protests in which at least 12 people died, and culminated in the Iranian…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":14416,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14415","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14415","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14415"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14415\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14416"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14415"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14415"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14415"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}