Through a vast social campaign, Iraqis have called for the boycott of Iran-made commodities on the Iraqi market.
A hashtag “let it rot” is circulating on social media through which Iraqis call for a boycott of anything under the ‘made in Iran’ brand.
Iraqi activists have tweeted that the campaign aims at economic sanctioning of Tehran and applying economic pressure in the hope of reining in the latter’s intervention in Iraq.
They also claim to aim at enhancing local goods in order to save the shattered Iraqi economy.
The popular FORCES TO IRAQ
An exclusive report by Regime’s Militias Deployed Snipers in Protests – Reuters
— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) October 17, 2019
In recent years, the Iraqi market has been full of goods coming from neighboring countries, with Iranian goods having the lion’s share quantity-wise, because of their low prices, in spite of their low quality.
According to the Iranian state-run Tasnim news agency, affiliated with the notorious IRGC Quds Force, no less than nine billion dollars’ worth of goods has been exported from Iran to Iraq between March 2018 and 2019, including virtually anything from cars to plastic products, construction material to vegetables and dairy products.
According to United Nations figures, in 2017, around 20% of Iran’s exports to Iraq were plastic products, 8% foodstuff, and 6% fruit and fruit derivatives.
The “let it rot” campaign comes as public anger toward Iranian intervention in Iraq and increased involvement of Tehran-backed militias in suppressing the popular movement has been mounting by the day.
Iraqi social network users have written: “Don’t buy any Iranian goods. Let us begin opposing Iran from this point,” as Iraq is a country where the most commodities are imported from Iran.