Iraqi Shiites to Iran: 'Get Out of Our Country'

"Petition condemns Iran for "disorder" in S.Iraq"

This Reuters article lead paragraphs read:

"More than 300,000 Iraqis including 600 Shi'ite tribal leaders have signed a petition accusing Iran of sowing "disorder" in southern Iraq, a group of sheikhs involved in the campaign said.

"The sheikhs showed Reuters two thick bundles of notes which contained original signatures. The sheikhs said more than 300,000 people had signed the pages."

This is a genuinely big deal. Iran is Shiite (Shi'ite, in the Reuters article). The Iraqis signing the petition are Shiite. Apparently, Iran has been messing with Iraq so much that they've managed to alienate their fellow-Shiites.

One of the comments on this story makes, I think, a point that the writer may not have intended: "If this is such a solid story, why wasn't it given wider play when the MeK was last pushing it in June? Then, the number claimed were 450,000 signatures."

It's quite possible to argue that covering this apparently massive public outcry against Iran's meddling in the affairs of Iraq would require an admission that the U.S. military's claim that Iran has been meddling in the affairs of Iraq - and that this admission would be against the editorial policy of most traditional western news outlets.

---

Shi'te? Shiite? As usual, I've selected one of the Roman alphabet versions of a word which comes from a language using another alphabet. I could write شيعة (sia or shia, more or less), but since the rest of these posts is in English, and since that's the only language I am truly fluent in, I'm sticking with "Shiite," for the most part.