德黑兰的转身：伊拉克风云（上） | 纽约时报
Iran Dominates in Iraq After U.S. ‘Handed the Country Over’
BAGHDAD — Walk into almost any market in Iraq and the shelves are filled with goods from Iran — milk, yogurt, chicken. Turn on the television and channel after channel broadcasts programs sympathetic to Iran.
巴格达。走进伊拉克任何一家市场，货架上都是伊朗生产的牛奶、酸奶和鸡肉。打开电视，每个频道都在播送同情伊朗的节目。
A new building goes up? It is likely that the cement and bricks came from Iran. And when bored young Iraqi men take pills to get high, the illicit drugs are likely to have been smuggled across the porous Iranian border.
一座大楼拔地而起？可能水泥和砖块是从伊朗运过来的。伊拉克年轻人无聊时嗑药嗑嗨了？违禁品可能从漏洞重重的伊朗边境走私而来。
And that’s not even the half of it.
这仅是冰山一角。
Across the country, Iranian-sponsored militias are hard at work establishing a corridor to move men and guns to proxy forces in Syria and Lebanon. And in the halls of power in Baghdad, even the most senior Iraqi cabinet officials have been blessed, or bounced out, by Iran’s leadership.
在整个国家，伊朗支持的民兵正建立走廊，将士兵和枪支送往叙利亚和黎巴嫩参加代理战争。在权力中心巴格达，即便伊拉克内阁中最资深的官员，伊朗也可以左右其去留。
When the United States invaded Iraq 14 years ago to topple Saddam Hussein, it saw Iraq as a potential cornerstone of a democratic and Western-facing Middle East, and vast amounts of blood and treasure — about 4,500 American lives lost, more than $1 trillion spent — were poured into the cause.
14年前，为推翻萨达姆·侯赛因而入侵伊拉克时，美国认为伊拉克可能是中东国家中民主和亲西方的基石，因此为这一事业流血、花钱，约4500名美国士兵丧生，耗资超过1万亿美元。
From Day 1, Iran saw something else: a chance to make a client state of Iraq, a former enemy against which it fought a war in the 1980s so brutal, with chemical weapons and trench warfare, that historians look to World War I for analogies. If it succeeded, Iraq would never again pose a threat, and it could serve as a jumping-off point to spread Iranian influence around the region. In that contest, Iran won, and the United States lost.
从第一天起，伊朗就另有盘算：将曾经的敌人变成自己的附庸国，上世纪八十年代两国恶战一场，动用化学武器，挖开战壕，历史学家将其比做一战。如果成功，伊拉克永远都不再构成威胁了，以此为踏板，伊朗势力会扩展到整个地区。这场竞赛中，伊朗赢了，美国输了。
Over the past three years, Americans have focused on the battle against the Islamic State in Iraq, returning more than 5,000 troops to the country and helping to force the militants out of Iraq’s second-largest city, Mosul.
过去三年，美国人把主要精力投入在伊拉克打击“伊斯兰国”，再次将5000名士兵送到该国，协助将好战分子逐出伊拉克第二大城市摩苏尔。
But Iran never lost sight of its mission: to dominate its neighbor so thoroughly that Iraq could never again endanger it militarily, and to use the country to effectively control a corridor from Tehran to the Mediterranean.
但伊朗从未忘却使命：它想彻底控制邻国，让伊拉克再也不能对伊朗构成军事威胁，并利用该国有效控制从德黑兰到地中海的走廊。
“Iranian influence is dominant,” said Hoshyar Zebari, who was ousted last year as finance minister because, he said, Iran distrusted his links to the United States. “It is paramount.”
“伊朗的影响是显而易见的。”伊拉克前财政部长胡希亚尔·兹巴里说，他去年被罢免，自称原因是他和美国关系不错，伊朗信不过他。
The country’s dominance over Iraq has heightened sectarian tensions around the region, with Sunni states, and American allies, like Saudi Arabia mobilizing to oppose Iranian expansionism. But Iraq is only part of Iran’s expansion project; it has also used soft and hard power to extend its influence in Lebanon, Syria, Yemen and Afghanistan, and throughout the region.
伊朗支配了伊拉克，激化了周边地区的教派冲突，如沙特等逊尼派国家和美同盟友均动员反对伊朗扩张主义。但伊拉克只是伊朗扩张的一部分，伊朗还软硬兼施，扩大在黎巴嫩、叙利亚、也门和阿富汗等地区的影响。
Iran is a Shiite state, and Iraq, a Shiite majority country, was ruled by an elite Sunni minority before the American invasion. The roots of the schism between Sunnis and Shiites, going back almost 1,400 years, lie in differences over the rightful leaders of Islam after the death of the Prophet Muhammad. But these days, it is about geopolitics as much as religion, with the divide expressed by different states that are adversaries, led by Saudi Arabia on one side and Iran on the other. Iran’s influence in Iraq is not just ascendant, but diverse, projecting into military, political, economic and cultural affairs.
伊朗是什叶派国家，而伊拉克在美国入侵前是由逊尼派精英统治、主体是什叶派的国家。逊尼和什叶分裂根源要追溯到1400年前，两派对先知穆罕默德归天后的伊斯兰正统领导人存在争议。如今，这既是宗教分歧，也是地缘政治问题，导致不同国家在沙特和伊朗的领导下互为敌手。伊朗对伊拉克的影响不仅在上升，更渗透入各个领域，包括军事、政治、经济和文化等。
At some border posts in the south, Iraqi sovereignty is an afterthought. Busloads of young militia recruits cross into Iran without so much as a document check. They receive military training and are then flown to Syria, where they fight under the command of Iranian officers in defense of the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad.
在伊拉克南部部分边防哨所，伊拉克主权都是后找补的。一车车年轻民兵穿过边境进入伊朗，不需要任何证明文件。他们在那里接受军事训练后派往叙利亚，在伊朗军官的指挥下保卫叙利亚总统巴沙尔·阿萨德。
Passing in the other direction, truck drivers pump Iranian products — food, household goods, illicit drugs — into what has become a vital and captive market.
反过来，卡车把伊朗制造的食物、家居用品和非法药品运进伊拉克，对伊朗来说，那里是至关重要的垄断市场。
Iran tips the scales to its favor in every area of commerce. In the city of Najaf, it even picks up the trash, after the provincial council there awarded a municipal contract to a private Iranian company. One member of the council, Zuhair al-Jibouri, resorted to a now-common Iraqi aphorism: “We import apples from Iran so we can give them away to Iranian pilgrims.”
伊朗按喜好改变了每个商业领域。在伊拉克纳贾夫，伊朗一家私企得到省议会市政合同，甚至还拾垃圾。省议会议员祖哈尔·吉卜力引用伊拉克一句流行语：“我们从伊朗进口苹果，伊朗朝觐者来这儿吃苹果。”
Politically, Iran has a large number of allies in Iraq’s Parliament who can help secure its goals. And its influence over the choice of interior minister, through a militia and political group the Iranians built up in the 1980s to oppose Mr. Hussein, has given it substantial control over that ministry and the federal police.
政治上，伊朗在伊拉克议会有大批盟友助其实现目标。八十年代为推翻萨达姆，伊朗人在伊拉克组建了民兵和政治团体，通过这些组织左右内政部人选，使伊朗实际掌控了内政部和联邦警察。
Perhaps most crucial, Parliament passed a law last year that effectively made the constellation of Shiite militias a permanent fixture of Iraq’s security forces. This ensures Iraqi funding for the groups while effectively maintaining Iran’s control over some of the most powerful units. Now, with new parliamentary elections on the horizon, Shiite militias have begun organizing themselves politically for a contest that could secure even more dominance for Iran over Iraq’s political system.
或许最关键的是，去年伊拉克议会通过法律，实际上把什叶派民兵组织变成常备军。这确保了伊拉克提供资金，同时让伊朗对某些最有权力的机构加以控制。如今，新一轮议会选举在即，什叶派民兵组织开始规划自己的政治势力，打算在伊拉克政治体制中为伊朗确立更大优势。
To gain advantage on the airwaves, new television channels set up with Iranian money and linked to Shiite militias broadcast news coverage portraying Iran as Iraq’s protector and the United States as a devious interloper.
为了宣传造势，伊朗出资成立新电视频道，频道播送什叶派民兵新闻，将伊朗塑造成伊拉克的保护者，美国是阴险的入侵者。
Partly in an effort to contain Iran, the United States has indicated that it will keep troops behind in Iraq after the battle against the Islamic State. American diplomats have worked to emphasize the government security forces’ role in the fighting, and to shore up a prime minister, Haider al-Abadi, who has seemed more open to the United States than to Iran.
美国已表明结束与“伊斯兰国”的战斗后会将军队留在伊拉克，部分原因就是为了遏制伊朗。美国外交官一直强调政府军在打击“伊斯兰国”中的角色，并积极支持哈依德·阿巴迪总理，因为他看起来更亲近美国而非伊朗。
But after the United States’ abrupt withdrawal of troops in 2011, American constancy is still in question here — a broad failure of American foreign policy, with responsibility shared across 41 37157 41 15289 0 0 3375 0 0:00:11 0:00:04 0:00:07 3375 three administrations.
但美国2011年突然撤军让人质疑美政策的延续性，毕竟那是美国外交政策的一次大败，三届政府都要承担责任。
Iran has been playing a deeper game, parlaying extensive religious ties with Iraq’s Shiite majority and a much wider network of local allies, as it makes the case that it is Iraq’s only reliable defender.
伊朗耕耘更深，它与伊拉克的什叶派多数群体建立广泛的宗教联系，在当地构建更广的盟友网络，同时强调自己是伊拉克唯一可靠的捍卫者。
A Road to the Sea
海路
Iran’s great project in eastern Iraq may not look like much: a 15-mile stretch of dusty road, mostly gravel, through desert and scrub near the border in Diyala Province.
伊朗在伊拉克东部的大项目看起来可能不像那么回事儿：15英里长的土路，多是碎石，穿过迪亚拉省边境的沙漠和矮树林。
But it is an important new leg of Iran’s path through Iraq to Syria, and what it carries — Shiite militiamen, Iranian delegations, trade goods and military supplies — is its most valuable feature. It is a piece of what analysts and Iranian officials say is Iran’s most pressing ambition: to exploit the chaos of the region to project influence across Iraq and beyond. Eventually, analysts say, Iran could use the corridor, established on the ground through militias under its control, to ship weapons and supplies to proxies in Syria, where Iran is an important backer of Mr. Assad, and to Lebanon and its ally Hezbollah.
但那是伊朗经由伊拉克通往叙利亚的重要途径，路上往来的民兵、伊朗使者、商品和军备最能体现其价值。这是分析人士和伊朗官员所说的实现伊朗迫切雄心的一步棋，即利用地区混乱局面，在伊拉克和其他地区扩大影响。分析人士说，最终，伊朗利用这条通过民兵得以控制的走廊，将武器装备运给其在叙利亚的代理势力，支持阿萨德政府，同时运到黎巴嫩的伊朗盟友真主党手中。
At the border to the east is a new crossing built and secured by Iran. Like the relationship between the two countries, it is lopsided.
边境以东是伊朗建造并把守的一个新的十字路口，同两国关系一样倒向伊朗一边。
The checkpoint’s daily traffic includes up to 200 Iranian trucks, carrying fruit and yogurt, concrete and bricks, into Iraq. In the offices of Iraqi border guards, the candies and soda offered to guests come from Iran.
每天有将近200辆伊朗卡车载着水果、酸奶、水泥和砖块，从这个检查站驶入伊拉克。伊拉克边防所里，给客人的糖果和苏打都来自伊朗。
No loaded trucks go the other way.
没有满载的卡车走相反的方向。
“Iraq doesn’t have anything to offer Iran,” Vahid Gachi, the Iranian official in charge of the crossing, said in an interview in his office, as lines of tractor-trailers poured into Iraq. “Except for oil, Iraq relies on Iran for everything.”
“伊拉克没有可以卖给伊朗的东西，”负责这一通道的伊朗官员瓦希德·戛齐在他的办公室里接受采访时说，外面排成长龙的拖车涌进伊拉克。“除了石油，伊拉克的一切物品供应都靠伊朗。”
The border post is also a critical transit point for Iran’s military leaders to send weapons and other supplies to proxies fighting the Islamic State in Iraq.
对伊朗军事领导人而言，这一哨卡还是个重要的中转站，武器和其他供应从这里送到在伊拉克的代理人那里，用来打击“伊斯兰国”。
After the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, ISIL or Daesh, swept across Diyala and neighboring areas in 2014, Iran made clearing the province, a diverse area of Sunnis and Shiites, a priority. It marshaled a huge force of Shiite militias, many trained in Iran and advised on the ground by Iranian officials. After a quick victory, Iranians and their militia allies set about securing their next interests here: marginalizing the province’s Sunni minority and securing a path to Syria. Iran has fought aggressively to keep its ally Mr. Assad in power in order to retain land access to its most important spinoff in the region, Hezbollah, the military and political force that dominates Lebanon and threatens Israel.
伊拉克迪亚拉省是逊尼派与什叶派并存的多元地区，自2014年“伊斯兰国”（也被称作伊拉克和大叙利亚伊斯兰国、伊拉克和黎凡特伊斯兰国或达伊沙）占领迪亚拉和附近地区以来，伊朗把清除迪亚拉省极端分子作为其首要任务。伊朗整合了一支人数众多的什叶派民兵队伍，其中大多数士兵在伊朗接受训练，由伊朗军官发号施令。迅速取得胜利后，伊朗和它的民兵同盟开始确保此地的下一个利益点：让迪亚拉的逊尼少数派边缘化，确保通往叙利亚的道路畅通无阻。伊朗在叙利亚主动出击，要保住阿萨德政权，从而通过陆路联系该地区的附带利益真主党。真主党主导黎巴嫩政治和军事局面，威慑以色列。
A word from Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani, Iran’s powerful spymaster, sent an army of local Iraqi contractors scrambling, lining up trucks and bulldozers to help build the road, free of charge. Militiamen loyal to Iran were ordered to secure the site.
伊朗的间谍头子卡西姆·苏莱曼尼一声令下，伊拉克当地承包商、成排的卡车和推土机争先恐后地组成了一支免费的军队，兴修道路。效忠于伊朗的民兵得到命令保卫这一地区。
Uday al-Khadran, the Shiite mayor of Khalis District in Diyala, is a member of the Badr Organization, an Iraqi political party and militia established by Tehran in the 1980s to fight against Mr. Hussein during the Iran-Iraq war.
迪亚拉省卡里斯市长、什叶派的乌德·卡德兰是巴德尔组织的成员。该组织成立于上世纪八十年代，是德黑兰政府在两伊战争中为打击萨达姆·侯赛因而扶植的伊拉克政党和民兵组织。
On an afternoon earlier this year, he spread a map across his desk and proudly discussed how he helped build the road, which he said was ordered by General Suleimani, the commander of the Quds Force, the branch of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps responsible for foreign operations. General Suleimani secretly directed Iran’s policy in Iraq after the American invasion in 2003, and was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of American soldiers in attacks carried out by militias under his control.
今年初的某个下午，乌德·卡德兰在桌上摊开地图，自豪地谈论如何在苏莱曼尼将军命令下修路。苏莱曼尼是伊朗伊斯兰革命卫队分支之一圣城军的指挥官，负责境外作战，他在2003年美军入侵伊拉克后暗中指导伊朗对伊拉克的政策，他指挥民兵执行多次袭击，导致数以百计的美军士兵死亡。
“I love Qassim Suleimani more than my children,” he said. Mr. Khadran said the general’s new road would eventually be a shortcut for religious pilgrims from Iran to reach Samarra, Iraq, the location of an important shrine.
“我热爱卡西姆·苏莱曼尼胜过爱我的孩子们，”乌德·卡德兰说，苏莱曼尼将军主持修路，最终会给伊朗朝觐者提供捷径前往伊拉克圣城萨迈拉。
But he also acknowledged the route’s greater strategic significance as part of a corridor secured by Iranian proxies that extends across central and northern Iraq. The connecting series of roads skirts the western city of Mosul and stretches on to Tal Afar, an Islamic State-controlled city where Iranian-backed militias and Iranian advisers have set up a base at an airstrip on the outskirts. “Diyala is the passage to Syria and Lebanon, and this is very important to Iran,” said Ali al-Daini, the Sunni chairman of the provincial council there.
但他也承认，这条路更大的战略意义在于，它属于伊朗代理人保卫的走廊，横跨伊拉克中北部，相连道路擦过西部的摩苏尔并延伸到“伊斯兰国”占领的泰勒阿费尔城。伊朗支持的民兵和其军事顾问已在泰勒阿费尔城郊的飞机跑道建立基地。“迪亚拉是通往叙利亚和黎巴嫩的通道，这对伊朗来说至关重要，”逊尼派省议会主席阿里·戴尼说。
译者注：2017年8月，伊军已成功收复极端组织“伊斯兰国”组织（IS）位于伊拉克西北部战略重镇泰勒阿法尔（Tal Afar）的大部分地区。此文发表时该镇仍在“伊斯兰国”控制下。
Closer to Syria, Iranian-allied militias moved west of Mosul as the battle against the Islamic State unfolded there in recent months. The militias captured the town of Baaj, and then proceeded to the Syrian border, putting Iran on the cusp of completing its corridor.
近几个月来，随着打击“伊斯兰国”的行动在那里展开，与伊朗结盟的民兵也向摩苏尔以西运动，距离叙利亚更近。民兵夺取了巴阿吉镇，随后向叙利亚边疆挺进，走廊即将打通，伊朗距此只有一步之遥。
Back east, in Diyala, Mr. Daini said he had been powerless to halt what he described as Iran’s dominance in the province.
回到东边的迪亚拉，戴尼先生说他无力阻止伊朗“主宰”这个省。
When Mr. Daini goes to work, he said, he has to walk by posters of Iran’s revolutionary leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, outside the council building.
戴尼先生工作时说，他必须路过议会大楼外伊朗革命领袖阿亚图拉·霍梅尼的宣传海报。
Iran’s militias in the province have been accused of widespread sectarian cleansing, pushing Sunnis from their homes to establish Shiite dominance and create a buffer zone on its border. The Islamic State was beaten in Diyala more than two years ago, but thousands of Sunni families still fill squalid camps, unable to return home.
伊朗在该省的民兵被控大规模教派清洗，他们强迫逊尼派离开，使什叶派成为主流，并在边境建立缓冲带。“伊斯兰国”早在两年多以前就被击退，但迪亚拉的逊尼派家庭仍住在肮脏的营地，无法回家。
Now, Diyala has become a showcase for how Iran views Shiite ascendancy as critical to its geopolitical goals.
如今的迪亚拉证明，伊朗把什叶派支配地位作为该地区政治目标的关键。
“Iran is smarter than America,” said Nijat al-Taie, a Sunni member of the provincial council and an outspoken critic of Iran, which she calls the instigator of several assassination attempts against her. “They achieved their goals on the ground. America didn’t protect Iraq. They just toppled the regime and handed the country over to Iran.”
“伊朗比美国聪明，”省议会逊尼派成员尼贾特·泰伊说。她经常直言批评伊朗，说伊朗多次唆使对她进行刺杀。“他们切实达到目标，可美国不保护伊拉克，美国推翻萨达姆政权后就把伊拉克交给伊朗了。”
The Business of Influence
施加影响
The lives of General Suleimani and other senior leaders in Tehran were shaped by the prolonged war with Iraq in the 1980s. The conflict left hundreds of thousands dead on both sides, and General Suleimani spent much of the war at the front, swiftly rising in rank as so many officers were killed. “The Iran-Iraq war was the formative experience for all of Iran’s leaders,” said Ali Vaez, an Iran analyst at the International Crisis Group, a conflict resolution organization. “From Suleimani all the way down. It was their ‘never again’ moment.”
苏莱曼尼将军和其他德黑兰高层领导的生活都被八十年代旷日持久的两伊战争重塑。数十万人在冲突中丧生，大部分时间都在前线的苏莱曼尼将军迅速升职，同时也有很多官员牺牲了。“两伊战争对伊朗所有领导来说都具有长远影响，”伊朗事务分析人士阿里·瓦伊兹说，他供职于冲突解决机构“国际危机组织”。他还说：“伊朗领导层自上而下都认为，不能重蹈覆辙。”
A border dispute over the Shatt al Arab waterway that was a factor in the hostilities has still not been resolved, and the legacy of the war’s brutality has influenced the Iranian government ever since, from its pursuit of nuclear weapons to its policy in Iraq.
伊朗和伊拉克对阿拉伯河河道的领土争议仍未解决，两伊战争的创伤一直影响着伊朗政府，从发展核武器到对伊拉克政策都看得出来。
“This is a permanent scar in their mind,” said Mowaffak al-Rubaie, a lawmaker and former national security adviser. “They are obsessed with Baathism, Saddam and the Iran-Iraq war.”
“这是他们记忆中永远的伤口，”伊拉克前国家安全顾问、议员穆法克·鲁巴伊说，“他们为阿拉伯复兴主义、萨达姆和两伊战争困扰。”
More than anything else, analysts say, it is the scarring legacy of that war that has driven Iranian ambitions to dominate Iraq.
分析人士表示，最重要的是，那场战争留下的创伤使伊朗决定要主导伊拉克。
Particularly in southern Iraq, where the population is mostly Shiite, signs of Iranian influence are everywhere.
尤其在伊拉克南部，那里大部分人口都是什叶派，伊朗影响无处不在。
Iranian-backed militias are the defenders of the Shiite shrines in the cities of Najaf and Karbala that drive trade and tourism. In local councils, Iranian-backed political parties have solid majorities, and campaign materials stress relationships with Shiite saints and Iranian clerics.
伊朗扶植的民兵守护着什叶派圣城纳杰夫和卡尔巴拉，圣城里商贸繁荣，旅游业发达。当地议会中，伊朗支持的政党占压倒性多数，竞选材料也强调同什叶派圣人和伊朗神职人员的关系。
If the Iraqi government were stronger, said Mustaq al-Abady, a businessman from just outside Najaf, “then maybe we could open our factories instead of going to Iran.” He said his warehouse was crowded with Iranian imports because his government had done nothing to promote a private sector, police its borders or enforce customs duties.
从纳杰夫城外来做生意的穆斯塔克·阿巴迪说，如果伊拉克政府强势点，“我们还有可能自己开工厂而不用跑到伊朗去。”他说仓库里都是伊朗货，因为伊拉克政府什么都没干，没有促进民营部门发展，不管理边境，也不收关税。
Raad Fadhil al-Alwani, a merchant in Hilla, another southern city, imports cleaning supplies and floor tiles from Iran. He slaps “Made in Iraq” labels in Arabic on bottles of detergent, but the reality is that he owns a factory in Iran because labor is cheaper there.
拉阿德·法蒂尔·阿尔瓦尼是另一个南部城市希拉城的商人，他从伊朗进口清洁用具和地板砖。他拍拍清洁剂瓶子上用阿语写着的“伊拉克制造”标签，实际上这是他在伊朗开的工厂所造，因为那里的劳动力比较廉价。
“I feel like I am destroying the economy of Iraq,” he said. But he insists that Iraqi politicians, by deferring to Iranian pressure and refusing to support local industry, have made it hard to do anything else.
“我感觉好像自己在摧毁伊拉克经济，”他说。但他坚称，那些顺从于伊朗高压并拒绝扶持当地工业的伊拉克政客使他也没别的办法。
Najaf attracts millions of Iranian pilgrims each year visiting the golden-domed shrine of Imam Ali, the first Shiite imam. Iranian construction workers — many of whom are viewed as Iranian spies by Iraqi officials — have also flocked to the city to renovate the shrine and build hotels.
纳杰夫每年吸引数百万伊朗朝觐者到访瞻仰金色穹顶的圣殿，那里是什叶派第一任伊玛目阿里的圣墓所在。伊朗的建筑工人蜂拥至此翻新圣殿并兴建酒店，伊拉克官员认为他们中很多人是伊朗间谍。
In Babil Province, according to local officials, militia leaders have taken over a government project to set up security cameras along strategic roads. The project had been granted to a Chinese company before the militias intervened, and now the army and the local police have been sidelined from it, said Muqdad Omran, an Iraqi Army captain in the area.
据当地官员说，在伊拉克巴比伦省，民兵领导人接手了一个政府项目，在重要道路安装安全摄像机。该地区伊拉克军队头目穆克达·奥姆兰说，民兵插手之前，该项目本来由一家中国公司做，但现在军队和当地警察都被排除在项目之外。
Iran’s pre-eminence in the Iraqi south has not come without resentment. Iraqi Shiites share a faith with Iran, but they also hold close their other identities as Iraqis and Arabs.
伊朗在伊拉克南部的势力也并非没有招致怨恨。伊拉克什叶派和伊朗有相同的信仰，但他们也认同自己是伊拉克人和阿拉伯人。
“Iraq belongs to the Arab League, not to Iran,” said Sheikh Fadhil al-Bidayri, a cleric at the religious seminary in Najaf. “Shiites are a majority in Iraq, but a minority in the world. As long as the Iranian government is controlling the Iraqi government, we don’t have a chance.”
“伊拉克属于阿拉伯国家联盟，不属于伊朗，”纳杰夫神学院的一名神职人员谢赫法蒂尔·比达里说，“什叶派在伊拉克是多数，但在全世界占少数。只要伊朗政府还在控制伊拉克政府，我们就没机会发展。”
In this region where the Islamic State’s military threat has never encroached, Iran’s security concerns are mostly being addressed by economic manipulation, Iraqi officials say. Trade in the south is often financed by Iran with credit, and incentives are offered to Iraqi traders to keep their cash in Iranian banks.
伊拉克官员说，“伊斯兰国”军事威胁尚未侵入这片区域，在这里，伊朗主要靠操控经济来解决安全顾虑。伊朗经常通过贷款支持南部贸易，并以激励手段让伊拉克商人把钱存在伊朗银行。
Baghdad’s banks play a role, too, as the financial anchors for Iraqi front companies used by Iran to gain access to dollars that can then finance the country’s broader geopolitical aims, said Entifadh Qanbar, a former aide to the Iraqi politician Ahmad Chalabi, who died in 2015. “It’s very important for the Iranians to maintain corruption in Iraq,” he said.
巴格达的银行也发挥了作用。2015年去世的伊拉克政治家艾哈迈德·沙拉比生前的助手恩蒂法·坎巴尔说，银行为伊朗在伊拉克的挂名公司提供资金，伊朗借此获取美元，资助雄大的地缘政治野心。他说：“对伊朗来说，维持伊拉克腐败现状很重要。”
未完待续
译者 木叶こ