Robert Inlakesh
The media establishment controlled by Riyadh, Abu Dhabi, and Western corporate elites is attempting to mislead supporters of the regional resistance and make them turn on the groups they currently support.
As the regional ‘Axis of Resistance’ to Western hegemony in the Middle East advances on multiple fronts, a desperate attempt is being made by Western and Arab reactionary regime media outlets, to portray the alliance, led by Iran, as being on its last legs.
Iran currently leads a successful alliance of forces, including; Ansarallah in Yemen, Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas and Islamic Jihad in Gaza, the PMU in Iraq, among many others. Although Washington puts on that its primary concern about the Islamic Republic of Iran is its alleged pursuit of nuclear weapons, its regional alliance is what truly bothers policymakers in the US beyond all other considerations. This regional alliance, dubbed the ‘Axis of Resistance’, is what makes Iran an impossible target for war and all attempts to weaken its cross-border presence have been tried and so far failed.
The latest in attempts to dislodge Iran from its allies is in fact coming in the form of media psyops, designed to inflame local tensions in places like Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon. In Iraq, as a clear example of such attempts to stir division is the narrative that is pushed by Western, Persian Gulf regime media, that seeks to paint Iraq as shifting away from groups allied with Tehran.
One of the biggest challenges to the US, preventing it from reigning supreme over Iraq, is the Iraqi Popular Mobilisation Units (PMU). After becoming the Iraqi ground force to rid the country of Daesh and Al-Qaeda terrorists, the PMU gained huge credibility for its efforts and later began to focus its attention on expelling the US from their country, especially in the wake of the 2020 drone strikes which killed leading PMU commanders such as Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, along with Iran’s General Qassem Soleimani. A vote in the Iraqi parliament that year did in fact conclude that the US be ordered out by the government in Baghdad.
Whilst the Iraqi parliament once had a large presence of the PMU-aligned Fateh bloc, who were democratically elected by the Iraqi people, this October saw a dramatic decrease in the seats won by the Fateh Alliance; from 48 seats in 2018 to 16 seats in the recent election. This was instantly pounced upon by Western media and their allied media outlets in the Middle East. The election was called to be fraudulent by the likes of Kataeb Hezbollah and Asaeb Ahl Al-Haq, with claims being widely made of UAE interference in the democratic process.
But for the sake of argument, let’s put aside the claims of the PMU – about election rigging – and just look at what the results actually show. The Western and Arab reactionary regimes media-machine are using the dramatic drop in seats to corroborate their claims that Iraqis are shifting politically and are turning on the PMU. On the surface, 16 seats out of a 329-member parliament seem pretty damning, especially when the leading Sadrist movement won 74 seats. However, instead of delving deeper into this issue, the media of the empire stop there, because when you look at the popular votes, their narrative begins to look rather ridiculous. So, yes the PMU lost a large number of seats, but when we compare their popular vote count to that of the leading party, headed by Moqtada al-Sadr, these claims of a massive drop in support for the PMU are debunked entirely. The PMU aligned parties of the Fateh alliance won a total of 470,000 votes, meaning that they actually won the popular vote over the Sadrists who received 450,000 votes. The reason why the seats were lost was not due to a lack of support, in fact, they are the most popular in parliament, instead, it came down to the amendments made to the electoral system in Iraq.
Additionally PMU ally, Nouri al-Maliki, won an astounding victory, this is to go along with other parties who are favorable to the PMU also winning seats. So the narrative that Iran and its allies are losing in Iraq is just a lie.
Then came the attempted assassination of Iraqi Prime Minister, Mustafa al-Kadhimi, earlier this month. Instantly, media outlets belonging to Saudi Arabia, such as al-Hadath, and other media groups operating out of the United Arab Emirates, reported in a way which would make it seem like the PMU were responsible. Although Kataeb Hezbollah and Asaeb Ahl Al-Haq have been widely blamed for the assassination attempt, using three drones to do so, they themselves have denied it and pointed to irregularities indicating an American role in the attack. Most notably, the PM’s residence is based in Baghdad’s US Embassy ‘Greenzone’, which is protected by C-RAM air defense systems and has a relatively effective siren system. It wasn’t until explosions were heard, resulting from the drone attack, that the sirens went into effect and the C-RAM systems were never used to confront the threat.
With the assassination attempt, coupled with the loss of seats for the Fateh Alliance, a stream of stories ranging from Al-Arabiya, to Politico and the Telegraph, began producing pieces on Iran’s alleged weighing influence in Iraq and the fall of support for the PMU. But as we established above, the election example is completely invalid and in the case of the PMU being accused of attempting to assassinate PM Kadhimi, there is no proof. So ultimately there is no proof whatsoever of their claims.
If we then turn to Yemen, the Ansarallah movement is rapidly gaining ground in the northern, resource-rich, Marib area. The advance of the Yemeni resistance against the Saudi-backed forces of Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi has been steady, despite deadly airstrikes from the Saudi coalition. But if you turn to Western media and the media establishment in Saudi Arabia or the UAE, you would be made to believe that Ansarallah isn’t gaining territory at all.
Furthermore, if we take the example of Hezbollah inside of Lebanon, after the mass shooting of unarmed demonstrators by the Lebanese Forces, resulting in the deaths of 7 innocents in mid-October, the group could have easily been dragged into civil war. The situation could have been very different, but Hezbollah kept the peace and despite the severe economic crisis in Lebanon, the resistance group has not buckled under the pressure. Instead of reacting irrationally, Hezbollah has provided co-ops for the Lebanese people and has brought in fuel, whilst making it very clear to the groups’ enemies that they are ready to defend themselves.
After liberating most of southern Lebanon from the Zionist army in 2000, later defeating the occupation’s military in 2006, Hezbollah has only grown in its strength and according to its Secretary-General, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, now possesses a military structure of over 100,000 fully trained and armed men.
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Regimes have recently attempted to squeeze Lebanon, by cutting off diplomatic ties and trade, over a comment made by Lebanon’s Minister of Information, George Kordahi, prior to him assuming office. With this, Gulf Regimes have used their media to coordinate a dis-information war against Hezbollah, after failing all other attempts to weaken it domestically.
Saudi Arabia’s broadcaster al-Hadath, owned by al-Arabiya, has also been producing outrageous propaganda, claiming that the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has kicked out the Iranian Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC) Commander, Javad Ghaffari, for so-called violations of Syrian sovereignty, in order to sow division between supporters of the two-sides. Yet, Javad Ghaffari was rotated weeks prior to the claims of Saudi media and it was said to have been an Iranian decision.
In all, the media establishment controlled by Riyadh, Abu Dhabi, and Western corporate elites is attempting to mislead supporters of the regional resistance and make them turn on the groups they currently support. This is simply a last-ditch attempt to attack the Axis of Resistance after a long-term failed campaign, which has only damaged the civilian populations residing in the countries of the resistance, whereas the parties and armed groups maintain their power.
The opinions mentioned in this article do not necessarily reflect the opinion of Al mayadeen, but rather express the opinion of its writer exclusively.
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