Iraqi Leader Backs Syria, With a Nudge From Iran

To say that the uprisings in Syria, or anywhere in the region, are al-Qaeda orchestrated is to insult  to whole towns and cities which are giving martyrs on a daily basis to overthrow their dictatorial regimes.  I mean, what a sham. All leaders, and I mean all leaders in the region, have sought to discredit their people’s justified grievances by referring to them as dirt, rats, scum, or terrorists. NYT: As leaders in the Arab world and other countries condemn President Bashar al-Assad’s violent crackdown on demonstrators in Syria, Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki of Iraq has struck a far friendlier tone, urging the protesters not to “sabotage” the state and hosting an official Syrian delegation.

Mr. Maliki’s support for Mr. Assad has illustrated how much Iraq’s position in the Middle East has shifted toward an axis led by Iran. And it has also aggravated the fault line between Iraq’s Shiite majority, whose leaders have accepted Mr. Assad’s account that Al Qaeda is behind the uprising, and the Sunni minority, whose leaders have condemned the Syrian crackdown.