Are Iraqi leaders like babes in the geopolitical woods, so ignorant of foreign affairs that they can be taken advantage of by Russia and Iran? For Iraq’s Al-Iraq News, columnist Ayad al-Samarrai warns readers that Iraq Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has gone against America’s wishes by signing an arms deal with Moscow worth $4 billion, and agreeing to allow Russia and Iran to use Iraq as a transshipment point for supplying the regime of Bashar al-Assad with weapons. Hence, al-Samarrai predicts that Washington will soon move to topple Maliki.
For the Al-Iraq News, Ayad al-Samarrai writes in small part:
With the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on the verge of collapse, the Iranian economy reeling under the strain of sanctions and the rapid collapse of its currency, Moscow and Tehran have begun thinking about a Syria-Iran rescue plan. The idea is to make backdoor use of Iraq, thereby victimizing Iraqis by manipulating their leaders, who are too ignorant to understand what happens behind the scenes of global politics.
Maliki’s visit to Moscow was preceded by a surprise visit to Iraqi Kurdistan by Iranian Quds Force Commander Qasem Soleimani, during which he met with President Jalal Talabani [a Kurd] and his senior aides, and with Prime Minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government Nechirvan Barzani, to take their pulse to see how willing they are to cooperate with Tehran in saving Assad’s regime. And this visit came after Soleimani stopped in Ankara and Damascus. Iran Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi arrived in Baghdad after Soleimani left, marking an influx into Iraq, Beirut and Ankara of senior Iranian security officials.
This swirl of visits, which have taken place with remarkable speed, may result in such a Moscow-Tehran-Baghdad alliance, which will be formed to rescue the Syrian regime, especially after Maliki signed an arms agreement at the Kremlin worth over $4 billion. The deal includes provisions for using Iraq as a transshipment point for weapons supplied by Moscow and Tehran and headed to Syria, to help its besieged regime withstand the popular uprising that has been going on since March of last year. Some of the weapons will also go to Lebanese Hezbullah, as Maliki believes that the survival of his regime is tied to Hezbullah’s continued presence in Lebanon and the survival of Bashar al-Assad. The reason Iraq is being encouraged to step up is that Iran, the main sponsor of Assad and Hezbullah, has an economy nearing collapse due to global oil sanctions imposed as a result of Tehran’s nuclear program.
Bearing in mind that Maliki is heavily subsidized by America, and that the U.S. seeks to topple all of Maliki’s allies, one can assume that the United States, which brought Maliki to power, began considering abandoning him soon after he visited Russia – America’s traditional adversary. Now that Maliki poses a threat to U.S. policy both within Iraq and around the region, the likelihood is that Washington will move to replace Maliki at its earliest possible convenience. Indeed, he is an undesirable figure to most Iraqi political blocs, and even some of his allies in the Iraqi National Alliance.
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