By Walid Shoebat

“Obama has not done a damn thing so far to confront ISIS: doesn’t that show that there is no will in America to confront it?”

This is what Qassem Suleimani said about U.S. President Obama, who has become the laughing-stock throughout the Muslim world, even accusing Obama as “being an accomplice in the plot”.

Suleimani is no small fry. He could only advance to his stature as result of Obama’s exit strategy in Iraq to become the head of Iran’s Quds Force as well as Iran’s appointee, to manage Iran’s external affairs (specifically in Iraq), which made him the most powerful operative in the Middle East. The U.S. has no say so in Iraq and Suleimani is flexing his muscle to tell the world that Iran is now roosting in Iraq.

In Iran, the daily newspaper Javan, which is seen as close to the Revolutionary Guard, quoted Soleimani as saying the U.S. didn’t do a “damn thing” to stop the extremists’ advance on Ramadi.

“Does it mean anything else than being an accomplice in the plot?” he reportedly asked, later saying the U.S. showed “no will” in fighting the Islamic State group.

photo released by the official website of the office of the Iranian supreme leader, commander of Iran’s Quds Force, Qassem Soleimani, right, greets Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei while attending a religious ceremony in a mosque at his residence in Tehran, Iran. The chief of an elite unit in Iran’s Revolutionary Guard has accused the U.S. of having “no will” to stop the Islamic State group after the fall of the Iraqi city of Ramadi, an Iranian newspaper reported Monday. (Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader via AP, File) (Associated Press)

The agency quoted Tasnim news to Soleimani as saying on Sunday, referring to ISIS: “today in the fight against this dangerous phenomenon exists and there is no one there fighting them except Iran.”

Indeed. It is because it is Iran and not the U.S. that now has control over Iraq.

Another major figure is Shiite Iraqi Sistani and he is another one calling the shots in Iraq. He is of almost mythological stature to millions of followers in Iraq and beyond, has seized his most active role in politics in a decade.

Sistani rules from the holy city of Najaf and has asserted his dominance over public affairs.

Sistani, an Iranian born Shia and is considered Iraq’s most respected leader. His fatwa, or religious ruling, is expected to galvanize a significant movement from within Iraq’s majority-Shia population. Al-Sistani is, after all, the most influential voice for Iraq’s estimated 20 million Shia faithful.

Ayatollah Sistani plays the major role in the formation of Hashd Shaabi (The People’s Mobilization). While this is officially an Iraqi state-sponsored umbrella organization composed of some 40, almost exclusively Shiite militias they take their orders from Ayatollah Sistani of Iran while Iran’s Qasem Soleimani Guides  these forces in fight against ISIS. All this goes on while Obama manages more important affairs: