Baghdad, Asharq Al-Awsat – Over the past few days leaflets and posters have been distributed throughout Baghdad warning Iraqi citizens of the danger Iranian goods have on consumer’s health, and calling for a boycott of what it describes as ‘lethal goods’.

The distribution of these posters and leaflets coincided with the Iranian embassy hosting a special exhibition of Iranian goods and merchandise held in Al Mansour Hotel as part of the Baghdad International Exhibition. The posters and leaflets carried words of warning against opening up the Iraqi markets to Tehran, while also warning Iraqi citizens against using Iranian goods.

The posters and leaflets contained slogans such as ‘Beware of Iranian Goods’ and ‘Iran is using foodstuff to kill the Iraqi people’. Other leaflets carried an image of a hand removing the Iraqi flag and replacing it with an Iranian one, under the heading ‘Protect your lives…boycott Iran’s lethal goods’. One poster carried the words ‘Iran conceals explosive devices inside the goods they ship to Iraq’

A few months ago in Basra, the Arab Bloc for National Dialogue had called for a boycott of all Iranian products in protest against Iranian interference in Iraqi internal affairs, promising at that time that the boycott campaign would spread to all provinces of Iraq. It is unclear at this time if the Arab Bloc for National Dialogue is behind the boycott campaign in Baghdad.