[Centraal] Irak na de oorlog - deel 40

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Iraq looks East in foreign policy
Shortly after Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov left Baghdad last month, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi visited on Feb. 23. These two visits seem to be the culmination of Iraq's path toward opening up to the East, which is embodied by growing political and economic relations with three key "Eastern" countries: Iran, Russia and China.
Less than two years ago, there was a near consensus among observers that Iraq lacked a unified foreign policy, because of deep internal divisions that made it difficult for its competing ethnic and sectarian parties to agree on a clear vision for the identity of the country and its foreign role. Consequently, according to this view, Iraq could not embrace a defined foreign policy without resolving its internal conflicts, and specifically could not identify a national identity that would help it define its geographic and cultural horizons and its foreign project.

It does not appear that there has been a drastic change today, but there are what can be considered features of the emergence of a foreign policy adopted by the Baghdad government. This policy goes against what some expected after the fall of former President Saddam Hussein, since it is not based on an alliance with the West. What's more, it can be said that Iraq might be gradually heading back toward the "East," and the visits by the two Russian and Chinese officials can be placed within this context. Historically, the first radical change in Iraq's foreign policy approaches came after the fall of the Iraqi monarchy in 1958. This is the same year the diplomatic relations were established between Baghdad and Beijing and relations resumed between Baghdad and Moscow. Since then, Iraq's foreign policy has been heading toward the East, while its rupture with the West has deepened.

China and Russia's economic policymakers are rediscovering Iraq again. China considers the country to be an important trade partner in the region. The value of trade exchange between the two countries in 2012 amounted to more than $17 billion, and Beijing is one of the largest investors in the Iraqi oil and energy sectors. Meanwhile, trade relations between Iraq and Russia have been improving since 2009, when Russian oil producer Lukoil resumed its investment in the West Qurna oil field. Iraq once again began buying Russian weapons, and armaments cooperation was one of the most important topics of Lavrov's most recent visit to Baghdad.

Of course, this does not mean that Iraq has abandoned its relations with the United States. The recent visits by senior Iraq officials such as Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, Speaker Osama al-Nujaifi and Deputy Prime Minister Saleh al-Mutlaq to Washington indicate that the US still plays an important role in guiding the concerns of Iraqi politicians. Furthermore, the recently signed arms deals between Iraq and the US give the impression that strategic cooperation is ongoing between the two sides, especially regarding counterterrorism coordination. However, the two sides have largely different views about critical issues such as the Syrian crisis and Iran. Furthermore, there is a difference in the way Iraqi leaders view Washington, compared with how they view Moscow and Beijing. Washington is still a point of competition between these politicians, and they all focus on directing their relations toward Washington to serve their own internal political agendas. Yet these politicians do not view Moscow and Beijing in the same way. The latter two states deal with Iraq based on a purely pragmatic rationale, the primary focus of which is economic interests.

This trend toward the East reflects the internal developments that have occurred in Iraq since the withdrawal of US troops. The conflict over power in Baghdad was settled largely in the favor of Shiite Islamic forces. Maliki succeeded in consolidating his power and controlling the major joints of decision-making in the country. Maliki no longer needs to consult with his internal rivals to determine foreign policy approaches. Rather, today he seeks to take advantage of his foreign relations to strengthen his internal influence. In this regard, the third "Eastern" force — i.e., Iran — has a very vital role.

Al-Monitor spoke with Emma Sky, a former political adviser to the US military in Iraq who currently serves as a senior fellow at Yale University. "This shift toward the East began in 2010, when Iran — not the United States — succeeded in guaranteeing a second term for Prime Minister Maliki," she said. Since that time, it seems that Maliki's success in consolidating power has coincided with a growth in Iraqi-Iranian relations.

The Syrian crisis played a crucial role in promoting this trend. For the first time, the Iraqi government found itself in conflict with the United States regarding a sensitive regional issue that had an impact on the internal situation in Iraq. Although the Iraqi government has not taken a direct position in support of the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, it is not on friendly terms with the Syrian opposition that is backed by the West, or with the armed groups that have become active in Syria. In short, Iraq's position on the Syrian crisis was closer to the Iranian stance than to that of the United States. And perhaps this played a role in stimulating cooperation between Iraq and Russia, whose foreign minister confirmed his country's support for Iraq in confronting terrorism, which has grown against the backdrop of the conflict in Syria.

Relations between Baghdad and Ankara have deteriorated because of the Syrian issue, and because Baghdad considers the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to be supporting the Iraqi Kurdistan region in its conflict with Baghdad over oil exports and other issues. This has led to a greater Iraqi dependence on Iran, to counterbalance Erdogan’s regional ambitions. At a time when it seems that trade relations with Turkey are decreasing, their levels between Iraq and Iran have been increasing, reaching more than $12 billion in 2013. Moreover, there are reports indicating that Iran wants to fill the void that may occur if trade and economic relations between Ankara and Baghdad deteriorate. Besides the political and economic dimensions, religious, cultural and tourism-related ties between Iraq and Iran are the best they've been since the founding of the modern Iraqi state.

The growing ties between Iraq and Iran were confirmed by the latest reports that Iraq violated international sanctions by signing a deal to buy arms and ammunition from Iran, which caused the US administration to raise concerns publicly. The Iraqi Ministry of Defense denied these reports in a statement published on its website. The first reaction by the Iraqi government came from Ali Al-Mussawi, Maliki’s media adviser, who did not confirm these reports but asserted that there is nothing preventing his government from buying arms from any party.

Iraq directing itself toward the East does not reflect a national policy with a strategic dimension. Rather, it indicates the extent of the relationship between internal conflicts and external relations in the country. Things will remain this way until these conflicts give rise to a more permanent structure for authority, including clearer conceptions of national interests and national identity.

Bron

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Iraqi minister's son misses flight, forces plane back

A passenger plane flying from Lebanon to Iraq on Thursday turned back after the Iraqi transport minister's son missed the flight and phoned Baghdad to stop the aircraft from landing, Middle East Airlines (MEA) said.

Marwan Salha, acting chairman of MEA, said the flight, scheduled to leave at 1240 (1040 GMT), had been delayed for six minutes while MEA staff looked for Mahdi al-Amiri, son of Hadi al-Amiri, and his friend in the business lounge.

"We made the necessary announcements and the last calls," he said. "The plane took off but one of the passengers turned out to be the son of the minister of Iraq."

Salha said that when Amiri arrived at the gate he was angry and said: "I will not allow the plane to land in Baghdad."

Twenty-one minutes into the flight, the Baghdad airport station manager called MEA operations to tell them there was no clearance to land, Salha said. The plane then returned to Beirut and the passengers disembarked.

"It's very disturbing because this is pure nepotism," Salha said, adding that he hoped to resume flights to Iraq on Friday but that there would not be another flight on Thursday.

Transport Minister Hadi al-Amiri is head of the Badr Organisation, once an armed Shi'ite militia, and a political ally of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.

Many Iraqis believe that relatives of elected officials and leaders of political parties act as if they are above the law.

Iraq's Transport Ministry confirmed the airliner had been turned around but said this was due to airport cleaning and that the minister's son had not been due to be a passenger on it.

Kareem al-Nuri, the transport minister's media adviser, said: "There were cleaning operations in the airport and specific measures were taken. We asked all flights not to land in Baghdad airport after 9 a.m. (0600 GMT) but this flight arrived after this time, so we asked it to turn back.

"This information (about the minister's son) is not true and the minister is not accepting such behaviour. The minister's son was not scheduled to take that flight at all."

An official at Baghdad airport, who asked not to be named, said air traffic was normal, with 30 flights landing on Thursday. The only one turned around was the one from Beirut.

Iraqis mocked Amiri and his son on social media as news of the incident spread. A girl named Diana wrote: "Sounds like Uday and his father rose from the grave", a reference to the late Saddam Hussein and his son Uday, known for arbitrary behaviour.

Bron

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Maliki: Saudi and Qatar at war against Iraq

Iraqi prime minister accuses Riyadh and Doha of declaring war against his country in rare direct attack on Gulf states.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has accused Saudi Arabia and Qatar of supporting fighters in Iraq and effectively declaring war on the country.

The rare direct attack on the Sunni Gulf powers, comes with Iraq embroiled in its worst prolonged period of bloodshed since 2008, with more than 1,800 people killed already this year, ahead of parliamentary elections due next month.

The bloodletting in the country, which shares a long border with Saudi Arabia, has been driven principally by widespread discontent among the country's Sunni Arab minority and by the civil war in neighbouring Syria.

Maliki, a Shia, has in the past blamed unnamed regional countries and neighbours for destabilising Iraq, the AFP news agency reported.

But in an interview with France 24 broadcast on Saturday, the Iraqi premier said allegations he was marginalising Sunnis were being pushed by sectarians with ties to foreign agendas, with Saudi and Qatari incitement.

"They are attacking Iraq, through Syria and in a direct way, and they announced war on Iraq, as they announced it on Syria, and unfortunately it is on a sectarian and political basis," he said.

"These two countries are primarily responsible for the sectarian and terrorist and security crisis of Iraq."

Saudi Arabia and Qatar have emerged as regional rivals because, while both have provided support to fighters opposed to embattled Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, the two countries have also sparred in recent weeks over Doha's support for the Muslim Brotherhood of deposed Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi.

Saudi Arabia, along with Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, withdrew its ambassador to Qatar this month.

Baghdad has long complained that support for groups fighting in Syria's civil war finds its way through to Iraq with weapons in particular ending up in the hands of armed groups.

Maliki said in the interview that Riyadh and Doha were providing political, financial and media support to fighters and accused them of buying weapons for the benefit of these organisations.

Bron

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Op dinsdag 10 juni 2014 13:17 schreef theunderdog het volgende:
Allemaal het werk van ISIS?

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Op dinsdag 10 juni 2014 13:09 schreef Zaibatsu01 het volgende:

Waar haal je dat vandaan?

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Op dinsdag 10 juni 2014 13:19 schreef theunderdog het volgende:
Even uit interesse: hoe denk jij daar eigenlijk over?

Ben je voor of tegen ISIS?

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Op dinsdag 10 juni 2014 13:22 schreef Senor__Chang het volgende:
Hadden de Koerden niet een deel van Mosul in handen? Namelijk het deel ten oosten van de rivier die de stad split.

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Op dinsdag 10 juni 2014 14:03 schreef theunderdog het volgende:
Denk je dat dat realistisch is?

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Op dinsdag 10 juni 2014 14:11 schreef Senor__Chang het volgende:
Welke gebieden zijn dan onder Koerdische controle? Ik lees veel tegenstrijdige berichten, ook op twitter. Is Kirkuk bijvoorbeeld onder KRG controle? En Xaneqin?

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Op dinsdag 10 juni 2014 14:18 schreef Senor__Chang het volgende:
Niet echt, aangezien Mosul en Tel Afar zeker niet onder KRG controle zijn. Sinjar ook niet volgens mij.

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Op dinsdag 10 juni 2014 14:27 schreef Senor__Chang het volgende:
Overigens bezitten de Koerden ook 8 van de 12 zetels in Kirkuk, sinds de vorige verkiezingen.

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Op dinsdag 10 juni 2014 14:27 schreef Peunage het volgende:
Denk je dat het ISIS om Maliki gaat? Ze zullen zich tegen iedereen keren. Sonnieten en Koerden inclusief.

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Op dinsdag 10 juni 2014 14:31 schreef expans het volgende:
Turkije pusht Barzani om de rest buitenspel te zetten dus ik denk niet dat ze 1-2-3 met een oplossing kunnen komen wat betreft de olie. Alhoewel Rouhani op bezoek was en ze zeiden dat ze zouden samenwerken, ook op het gebied van Irak/Syrië...