Maesh: Suspicious mix of ISIS and Iranian Revolutionary Guard

Eslam Mohamed

After years of claiming false heroism, Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commander Major General Hossein Salami admitted in a speech to his country’s parliament that the emergence of ISIS offered an opportunity to increase Tehran’s influence in the region.

Salami, who is listed on the terrorist list, added that Tehran defeated the Americans, whom he accused of supporting ISIS, without mentioning his militia’s involvement in supporting the terrorist organization in Syria and Iraq, especially after the killing of former Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani.

According to media reports, Iraq’s Kata’ib Hezbollah, Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq, Sayed al-Shuhada Brigades and Imam Ali Brigades transferred many Arab and foreign ISIS militants and prominent leaders who were detained by Iranian militias in Syria and then recently released. They were transferred from Syria to Iraq in coordination with the Lebanese Hezbollah militia and under the direct supervision of the Iranian Quds Force, with the aim of creating an atmosphere of chaos as a pretext for the Iranian-backed Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) operating on Iraqi soil, as well as to intensify pressure on US forces.

ISIS’s advancement in northern and central Iraq in 2014 turned into a card in Iran’s hand, as regional and western countries were hesitant to intervene and discuss plans to confront the new upheaval in the balance of power on the ground, meaning the Iranians were the first to reach the battlefield.

In light of Iran’s influence, the Iraqi army turned into a predominantly Shiite militia, which made its leaders withdraw from their responsibilities in defending the Iraqi province of Nineveh due to it being a mainly Sunni province.

Instead of Tehran being accused as a result of its influence in Baghdad at the time of Nuri al-Maliki’s government, it now wants to be seen as Iraq’s savior from the evils of ISIS.

This is the claim echoed by former Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani, who said that if Iran had not interfered in Iraq, the situation in the country would have gotten completely out of control.

Earlier this year, the hashtag “ISIS and the militias were made Iran” spread on Twitter, considering that both ISIS and the militias are products of Iran aiming to impose their control over the countries of the region.

Activists and bloggers published several photos, including one that included Iraqi militia leaders, and called them “Maesh” as a mix between the words “militias” and the Arabic term “Daesh” for ISIS. Others also posted a video clip of previous statements by former Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Baha Araji in which he openly spoke about Iran’s support and the establishment of ISIS in the region.

It has become known that ISIS serves Iran completely, as its terrorist elements pay great attention to killing officers and generals of the Iraqi army and weakening it in favor of the militias, which makes Iraq confused. This is exactly what Iran wants, in order to keep Iraq under its sovereignty, while ISIS deepens the security chaos, providing flimsy justifications for the survival of Iraq’s terrorist PMF and eliminating the specter of its dissolution or dismantling.