US Hails Grand Ayatollah Sistani, as it Slams Idea of Targeting him in Extremist Israeli Media

WASHINGTON DC, United States (Kurdistan 24) On Thursday, following a meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shi’a al-Sudani, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Alina Romanowski, posted a tweet hailing Iraq’s Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.

It seemed that she was rebutting an Israeli threat to target Sistani, and while the times are violent and officials cannot be too careful, it would also appear that no such threat really exists.

Rather, the most imminent threat to Iraq coming out of the conflict between Israel, on the one hand, and Iran and its proxies, on the other, involves Israeli plans to retaliate against Iran for its attack last week on the Tel Aviv area.

“Israel’s counterattack is expected to be far more forceful than its response to Iran’s first round of ballistic missiles in April,” The New York Times has said. 

That, in turn, could prompt a counter-attack from Iran’s proxies in Iraq—the so-called “Islamic Resistance in Iraq” (IRI), and that could lead to an Israeli attack, not against Sistani—but against the IRI itself.

Indeed, that is pretty much the understanding of Hoshyar Zebari. Zebari, a long-time Kurdish opposition figure, became Iraq’s first Foreign Minister after Saddam Hussein’s overthrow and then Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister.

“Israel will not target or harm the world’s leading Shi’ite authority, His Eminence Grand Ayatollah Sistani,” Zebari tweeted.

“What some are saying is a mobilization for political sectarianism and politicization of the confrontation between Zionist Israel and the Shiites.” he continued.

“If targeting occurs, it will be against the terrorist militia organizations that are determined to drag Iraq into this war,” he concluded.

اسرائيل سوف لن تستهدف او تمس مرجعية الشيعة في العالم السيد اية الله العظمى السيستاني. و ما يروح له البعض هو من باب التعبئة للطائفية السياسية و تسيس للمواجهة بين اسرائيل الصهيونية و الشيعة. واذا حصل استهداف فسيكون للمنظمات المليشياوية الارهابية و المصرة على جر العراق الى هذه الحرب

— Hoshyar Zebari (@HoshyarZebari) October 9, 2024

Amb. Romanowski’s Tweet

Sistani “is a renowned and respected religious leader in the international community,” she tweeted, after her meeting with Sudani. “He is a critical and influential voice in promoting a more peaceful region.” 

Grand Ayatollah Sistani is a renowned and respected religious leader in the international community. He is a critical and influential voice in promoting a more peaceful region. We reject any suggestion of targeting Grand Ayatollah Sistani. The United States continues to support…

— Ambassador Alina L. Romanowski (@USAmbIraq) October 10, 2024

“We reject any suggestion of targeting Grand Ayatollah Sistani,” she continued. “The United States continues to support efforts to promote peace in the region.”

The suggestion that Sistani was in danger of being targeted had become, by then, overblown: first in social media and then by Iraqi politicians.

There are other aspects of this conflict that should worry Iraqis more—above all that any serious IRI attack on Israel could prompt an equally serious Israeli retaliation—and without regard for civilian casualties, as has happened in both Gaza and Lebanon.

Background to the Misunderstanding of this Threat

Israel has nearly 100 television channels. One of them is Channel 14. It is a right-wing station, and it is highly controversial, even within an Israeli context.

Last month, three Israeli human rights groups wrote their country’s Attorney General, demanding a criminal investigation into Channel 14, as it had broadcast some 50 statements calling for genocide in Gaza, while another 150 statements supported various war crimes, including mass deportations and starvation.

Just because Channel 14—or any other television channel—broadcasts something does not make it government policy. Israeli television is different from most Middle Eastern television. It is similar to that in the west, as it is not controlled by the government.

On Oct. 7, on the first anniversary of Hamas’s brutal cross-border assault on Israel that triggered the current war, Channel 14 televised a report with pictures of the leaders of Islamic entities, with targets on their faces, that had attacked the country.

They included Hamas’s military chief, Yahya Sinwar, as well as Esmail Qaani, head of the Qods Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC.)

And for the IRI, there was Sistani’s picture—although he has nothing to do with them. It is, indeed, truly difficult to attribute the leadership of the IRI to any one individual. Rather, it appears to operate under the direction of the IRGC.

The suggestion of Channel 14 was that Israel should assassinate those figures, as well.

The report was just a continuation of Channel 14’s past practices, which precipitated the call for a criminal investigation from Israel’s human rights groups.

Nonetheless, the report was picked up by various Shi’a figures and posted the next day, on Oct. 8, to social media, where it was presented as a direct threat to Sistani. 

On the following day, Oct. 9, Iraqi politicians were expressing their outrage as well. They included the Acting Speaker of the Iraqi Parliament, Mohsen Mandalawi, a Fayli (Shi’a Kurd) from Diyala.

Mandalawi is close to former Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, a sectarian figure whose resignation was demanded by the Obama administration as a precondition for U.S. support for Baghdad against the newly emergent ISIS.

They also included the Iraqi Prime Minister. On Wednesday, Sudani’s office issued a statement, denouncing Channel 14’s attack on Sistani in very strong terms.

“In the wake of the Zionist entity’s escalating genocidal war and blatant crimes against humanity in Gaza and Lebanon, its racist, inciting media has launched a vicious attack on the image of the Supreme Religious Authority,” the statement began.

The statement continued in that overwrought style for another three paragraphs, before concluding, “Iraq, the government and the people, have made every effort to stop the war. However, the Zionist entity, its supporters, and the international community’s failure have only exacerbated the situation. Today, it tries to spread insults to cover up its blatant crimes.”

In other words, there is no threat to Grand Ayatollah Sistani, as Hoshyar Zebari said. Rather, this is a political competition among sectarian factions operating in the heated and violent environment generated by the war between Israel and Iran and its proxies.