February 21-2014
Tehran last month offered to help the Iraqi army confront Sunni militant groups by selling it weapons, but Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has instead turned to the United States.
In an interview with The Washington Post, Maliki said he had given Vice President Joe Biden a list four days earlier of weapons needed to confront Al-Qaeda affiliated groups that have become more active in Iraq in recent weeks. He said the list included assault rifles and artillery pieces.
He also said he would like US troops to train the Iraqi Army in counter-terrorism techniques. He suggested the training be done inside Jordan. It is the first time Maliki has spoken about a military relationship with the US since all US troops left the country in December 2011.
The Islamic Republic will certainly not be happy to see its weapons offer rejected. But it is likely to be furious at Maliki’s proposal that US troops actually train Iraqis.
The request for US weapons and trainers is perhaps more important in that it indicates Maliki’s concern about getting too close to Iran.
Many American analysts have decried a growing Iranian influence in Iraq since the US troops left. But Maliki is understood to share the same concern. Maliki has routinely been polite and vocal in his respect for Iran. But a number of people close to him say he actually does not trust the Islamic Republic at all.
Like many members of the Iraqi opposition, Maliki fled to Iran during the Iran-Iraq war in 1982 and was supported by Iran. But Maliki left Tehran in 1990 and shifted his base to Syria, where he remained until Sadism Hussein was ousted by US troops in 2003. Some published reports have said he left because of Iranian pressures to act in Iranian interests that conflicted with his view of Iraqi interests.
Maliki is a leader of the Ad-Dawa party, which was founded independent of Iran. Iran created a separate organization, the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), which was more under its control.
A recent report by the Congressional Research Service says the United States has shipped Iraq $10.5 billion in military gear since 2005 and has pending orders for $15 billion more. But the Post said Baghdad has unhappy with the slow US system and has bought some weapons elsewhere, including Russia and South Korea.