by Steven Richards
As the new Iraqi Prime Minister pivots to the U.S.-backed reforms to limit Iran’s influence, President Trump sees an opportunity for U.S. investment, oil deals, and a withdrawal of troops.
The Trump administration has exploited the U.S. war with Iran to pull Iraq back into alignment with the United States in the Middle East, attempting to reverse years of growing Iranian influence in Iraq's politics.
President Donald Trump gambled that by intervening in the selection of Iraq’s new prime minister earlier this year, he could spur Baghdad’s realignment, promote American investments in Iraq’s oil industry, and end the influence of Iran-backed militias in Iraq’s government.
Ali al-Zaidi appears receptive to Trump's overtures
The new Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi, appears to be delivering. During his first trip abroad, he met with President Trump in Washington on Tuesday and outlined plans to open Iraq for U.S. investment, disarm Iran-backed militias still operating in the country, and bolster his country’s economy.
President Trump assessed that Baghdad’s progress on these
issues would not have been possible without the unique conditions
created by the United States’ war with Iran, which began earlier this
year after joint U.S.-Israeli airstrikes.
“Iran has been very much destabilized, and really their military power is only a fraction of what it was,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Tuesday. “It has given [Iraq] freedom to do what they want to do,” he added.
In April, and in the midst of war with Iran, the Trump administration, citing attacks on U.S. facilities and personnel by Iraqi militias, froze transfers of oil revenue Iraq had expected. The funds are held at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
Seeing an opportunity, the administration also lobbied the Iraqi parliament to prevent the selection of Nouri al-Maliki as the new prime minister. Al-Maliki previously served in the role from 2006 to 2014, but resigned after Iraq’s military suffered devastating early defeats against the Islamic State.
Shortly before leaving office, al-Maliki formalized the role of a group of Shia Muslim militias that make up the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF). Many of these groups remain closely tied with Iran, which has used them to exert influence over Baghdad ever since.
Members of the PMF, including Kataib Hezbollah, Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba, Asaib Ahl al-Haq, are U.S.-designated terrorist organizations and have targeted U.S. diplomatic staff, military personnel, and allies. As of March of this year, the Secretary of State has identified 94 entities as terrorist organizations.
For the Trump administration, a return by Maliki to power was unacceptable. Under pressure after the U.S. withheld oil revenue, the Shia Coordination Framework – the coalition of Shiite political leaders that wields significant influence in Baghdad – backed al-Zaidi to take the post instead.
Disbanding the Iran-backed militias
Since taking office on May 16, Zaidi moved quickly to bring Iran-backed militias under greater state control before his Washington visit. This has been a central demand of the Trump administration, which had grown frustrated with what it viewed as delays by the previous Iraqi government.
Earlier this year, al-Zaidi issued an order to begin folding the various militias into the official command hierarchy of the Iraqi military. The plan received buy-in from PMF chief Faleh al-Fayyadh, who said in June that a new committee had been formed to achieve the “complete disengagement” of the militias from any other Iraqi political entities.
Al-Zaidi has set a Sept. 30 deadline for the process. “After the 30th of September we will never accept any entity to carry weapons outside the authority of the state,” al-Zaidi told reporters and President Trump on Tuesday. So far, the Saraya al-Salam militia affiliated with populist Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, along with Asaib Ahl al-Haq and Kataib al-Imam Ali, have agreed to the initiative.
However, two holdout militias, Kataib Hezbollah and Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba, that maintain the closest ties to Iran are still, so far, resisting the state’s efforts, making the road ahead uncertain.
Paired with al-Zaidi’s deadline to disarm the independent militias, President Trump says that the United States plans to withdraw the last remaining U.S. forces stationed in Iraq by the same Sept. 30 deadline.
"Well, we don't think we need the military there anymore," Trump said in his Oval Office meeting with al-Zaidi. A drawdown in U.S. military forces began last September pursuant to an earlier 2024 agreement between Washington and Baghdad. At that time, only 2,500 U.S. troops remained in the country, down from a peak of about 170,000 in 2007 during the Iraq war.
Al-Zaidi also launched an anti-corruption campaign, dubbed “Operation Dawn Strike” which targeted those accused of embezzling state funds. The crackdown was also reportedly aimed at cutting ties between Iran-aligned figures and the Iraqi state, according to the Arabic language news outlet Asharq Al-Awsat.
Boosting oil investments
Al-Zaidi stressed that the end of the U.S. mission in Iraq would not mark the end of the two countries’ partnership.
"The 30th of September, the U.S. forces would be out of Iraq. While U.S. companies will be inside Iraq,” the Iraqi prime minister said in the Oval Office.
Since al-Zaidi took power in April, his government has already agreed to contracts with American energy companies to invest in the country’s hydrocarbon sector. Last week, Halliburton secured a contract from Iraq’s state-owned oil company, Basra, to develop the Bin Umar and Sindbad oil fields, boosting the country’s crude oil output.
Earlier this month, the Iraqi government authorized Basra Oil Company to sign a preliminary agreement with American companies Capital TI and Chevron to explore oil export pipeline projects. “The oil companies are all going in now, and they’re doing partnerships with Iraq, and they’re getting along very well,” President Trump said on Tuesday.
Just the News reported in June that al-Zaidi has made it a priority to provide security guarantees for U.S. and other international energy projects as well as to protect the Kurdistan Regional Government, a semi-autonomous region in northeast Iraq, so that oil exports can resume there. The initiative is aimed at restoring production and exports from Kurdistan through the Iraq-Turkey pipeline after the conflict with Iran effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz, sharply reducing Iraqi oil revenues.
The Trump administration is also pursuing a new pipeline that would transport oil from Iraq to Syria as another means of bypassing the strategic waterway.
The Iraqi government also promised to compensate international and U.S. companies for any losses resulting from attacks on their facilities if those attacks originated within Iraq, according to correspondence reviewed by Just the News last month ahead of al-Zaidi’s visit to Washington, D.C.
Steven Richards
Sourc: https://justthenews.com/government/diplomacy/trump-administration-exploits-iran-war-opportune:https://justthenews.com/government/diplomacy/trump-administration-exploits-iran-war-opportunity-pull-iraq-back-american
No comments:
Post a Comment