Putin, Obama and Iraq

Washington’s call for a unity government in Iraq did not last for long. The Americans practically backed off from this idea, and only supported it in the first place to save face, due to their desire to support Baghdad’s regime against the Sunni alliance rebellion, while awaiting the current security situation to cancel out the political effects of that call.

Al-Maliki realized that the Americans were hoping he would indirectly reject their call, because they understood that the decision to change the political system is in Iran’s hands only, and negotiations should be done through the Iranians. Therefore, he quickly dismissed this idea, while emphasizing the importance of a military solution first. He did that by sending a large number of combatants to the north to recapture Tikrit, not only for its military importance, but also for its Sunni symbolism, being the birthplace of Saddam Hussein, who many years after being executed still troubled al-Maliki.

It is obvious the Russians know the boundaries set by Washington for any interference in Iraq, and understand that Obama is trying hard to get around the slogan he supported, on the condition that if he sends warplanes to Iraq, the Kurds and Sunnis should be part of the Iraqi government. The Russians then rushed to save al-Maliki by sending the warplanes he had commissioned earlier, and letting the Americans understand that the current pressing situation does not allow time for such manipulations, that they need to hurry and save al-Maliki, and show that the Russian battle is backing both the Syrian and Iraqi regimes.

John Kerry has asked the “Free Syrian Army” to fight the forces of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant at the Syrian-Iraqi border to cover up a secret agreement with the Syrian regime on the priority of fighting “terrorism.” That will make the American military intervention look like it is backing the Syrian resistance and not al-Assad and al-Maliki’s armies. The Iraqi prime minister has already shown his agreement with Damascus when he welcomed the Syrian air raids on the al-Qaem region seized by ISIL. Later, it turned out that these air raids were merely a cover up to attack the resistance forces who were trying to win back other regions on the border taken by ISIL, as it happened in al-Bu-Kamal region.

At the same time, the Europeans withdrew their calls for political change in Baghdad. The British foreign minister’s visit to the Iraqi capital was to endorse al-Maliki, although it was tied to the repeated American invitation to open up to the resistance. Great Britain has other priorities, mainly a full reconciliation with Iran, after it decided to reopen its embassy in Tehran to secure the lucrative contracts that were promised to them.

The Western media, especially in America, have paved the way for Obama to withdraw his condition on al-Maliki to commit to a moderate policy toward the non-Shiite. Instead, the media intentionally focused on the atrocities committed by ISIL fighters in Iraq to turn the uprising against the Iraqi government into a sectarian conflict, as happened in Syria, when the media all discussed the threat of extremism on religious and racial minorities, which gave the resistance the look of extremism. However, both the media and the American administration missed the fact that al-Maliki and al-Assad have both lost their popular and constitutional legitimacy, in addition to the sectarian policy that al-Maliki set eight years ago that cannot stand anymore, even with military force.