Israel's PM: Tehran is behind decline in Iraq

Shafaq News/ Iranian influence is behind recent events in Lebanon and Iraq, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said at the beginning of Sunday’s cabinet meeting, according to Zionist media.

Bennett referred to gun battles in Beirut in recent days, amid Hezbollah-organized demonstrations against the investigation of last year's devastating port explosion, as well as the rise of the populist cleric Muqtada al-Sadr in Iraq's election last week.

“We are following the developments in Lebanon and a bit east of there: Iraq,” Bennett said. “In both cases, we see a trend coming from below, of forces that are simply sick of the control and influence of Iran, whether it’s Hezbollah in Lebanon or Shi’ite militias in Iraq, which was hit hard in the election that took place there last week.”

Bennett said both were a result of “the Iranian touch.”

“Every place the Iranians go, enters a tailspin of violence, poverty, failure, and instability,” the prime minister said.

Bennett expressed hope for the Lebanese and Iraqi people that they will free themselves from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ “suffocating grip” and "build a better future for themselves," according to Israeli media.