With the insurgency in Iraq continuing unabated, Baghdad is increasingly looking to Iran. On Monday, during a visit to Iran, Iraqi Parliament Speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani requested Tehran’s help in restoring security to his country. In a meeting with Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council Ali Larijani, he said that Iraq is looking to Iran because of the two countries’ geographical, economic and political commonalities.

But it is more than that. “Today,” al-Mashhadani said, “an Islamic and free Iraq is treading the path mandated by Islam.” The purpose of his present visit, said al-Mashhadani, was to become familiar with Iran’s parliamentary system. He “praised Iran’s efforts to revive Islam as well as approve and implement laws and regulations based on Islam in the past 25 years. The Iraqi speaker expressed his view that consolidation of parliamentary relations between the two countries can provide a solid basis for expansion of mutual ties in all fields” (ArabicNews.com, July 4; emphasis ours throughout).

Al-Mashhadani all but stated that he wants Iraq to become an Islamic republic just like Iran.

Larijani responded in kind, saying al-Mashhadani’s visit “shows the close cooperation between the two countries despite alleged differences between Shiites and Sunnis” (ibid.).

“The visit by al-Mashhadani indicates that the two countries have a strategic and friendly cooperation based on their love for Islam,” Larijani said.

Trouble is, Iran’s brand of Islam features hatred for the West and the use of terrorism to support its cause. Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry has consistently pointed to the fact that radical Islam would be the binding force that will unite a Middle Eastern bloc of nations behind Iran.

As we stated following the Shiites’ success in January 2005 elections, “Watch for a new Shiite-dominated Iraqi government to draw closer to Iran in ideology and politics.”