• published: 14 Jun 2014
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ISIL and its allies took control of Falluja at the start of the year. It lies just 50 km (30 miles) west of Prime Minister of Iraq Maliki's office.. ISIL has set up military councils to run the towns they captured, residents said. "'Our final destination will be Baghdad, the decisive battle will be there' -- that's what their leader kept repeating," said a regional tribal figure.. The United States and Western and Gulf Arab allies back the mainly Sunni "revolt" against the Iranian-backed Syrian President Assad, but have had to watch as ISIL and other Islamists have come to dominate large parts of Syria.. Now the Shi'ite Islamic Republic of Iran, which in the 1980s fought Saddam for eight years at a time when the Sunni Iraqi leader enjoyed quiet U.S. support, may share an interest with the "Great Satan" Washington in bolstering mutual ally Maliki.. Until they aren't. As a reminder, ISIS's immediate ambition is to create an independent religious caliphate.. Which probably is why none other than the country's most senior Shiite cleric urged broad mobilization, telling people across the land to take arms.. A representative of Iraq's most influential Shi'ite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, urged people in a sermon at Friday prayers to take up arms and defend their country from mostly Sunni insurgents.. Sheikh Abdulmehdi al-Karbalai, who was delivering the sermon at prayers in the city of Kerbala, holy to Iraq's majority Shi'ites, said those killed fighting the militants would be martyrs.. "People who are capable of carrying arms and fighting the terrorists in defence of their country... should volunteer to join the security forces to achieve this sacred goal,"Karbalai said.. In response, worshippers chanted "Labbeik Ya Hussein", meaning they would act at the behest of Imam Hussein, who is buried in a shrine in Kerbala.. But what virtually assures that it is only a moment of time before the situation spirals out of control is the arrival of Iran troops who are now being sent to guard Baghdad, and fight Al Qaeda.. Reports coming out of security sources in Iran say that two battalions of Quds Force troops from the nation's Revolutionary Guard have deployed into neighboring Iraq to guard Shi'ite holy sites as well as the capital city of Baghdad. Some have also reportedly taken part in fighting in Tikrit.. The move comes in response to al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) taking most of the country's Sunni west, and moving dangerously close to Baghdad on multiple fronts. Iraq's Shi'ite government is on good terms with Iran.. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said his country can't tolerate the growth of a terrorist group so close to their borders, and promised unspecified aid to the Maliki government.. Iran has already been aiding the Assad government in Syria against AQI's advances there, albeit without much success.. As the problem of this new AQI-run state grows, Iran is likely to try to increase support for its struggling allies, out of whose territory the state is being carved.. More from Reuters, which reports that Iran, a Shiite republic, is so alarmed by Sunni insurgent gains in Iraq that it may be willing to cooperate with Washington in helping Baghdad fight back, a senior Iranian official told Reuters.. The idea is being discussed internally among the Islamic Republic's leadership, the senior Iranian official told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity. The official had no word on whether the idea had been raised with any other party.. Officials say Iran will send its neighbor advisers and weaponry, although probably not troops, to help its ally Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki check what Tehran sees as a profound threat to regional stability, officials and analysts say.. Islamist militants have captured swathes of territory including the country's second biggest city Mosul.. Tehran is open to the possibility of working with the United States to support Baghdad, the senior official said.. "We can work with Americans to end the insurgency in the Middle East," the official said, referring to events in Iraq. "We are very influential in Iraq, Syria and many other countries".. For many years, Iran has been aggrieved by what it sees as U.S. efforts to marginalize it. Tehran wants to be recognized as a significant player in regional security.. Rouhani on Thursday strongly condemned what he called violent acts by insurgent groups in the Middle East.. "Today, in our region, unfortunately, we are witnessing violence, killing, terror and displacement," Rouhani said.. "Iran will not tolerate the terror and violence ... we will fight against terrorism, factionalism and violence".. That's right: as a result of the epic US leftover mess in Iraq, it is now up to its arch nemesis Iran to get in and protect the country from none other than Al-Qaeda. And not only that, but Iran is prepared to work with the "great Statan", America, to defend the middle east from Al-Qaeda.. And to think: this is only the beginning...