AL ABADI IN DEAL WITH IRAN OVER MILITANTS
Agreement to keep Tehran-backed Hashed forces as military unit in Iraq
Iraq and Iran signed an agreement yesterday to boost military cooperation days after the US imposed new sanctions against Tehran for its “malign” activity in the region.
The agreement to help “combat terrorism” was signed a day after Iraqi prime minister Haider Al Abadi said Shiite militias backed by Iran would remain an integral part of Iraq.
Iranian military advisers have played a key role in the campaign to drive ISIL from territory it seized in 2014 and the militias, known as Hashed Al Shaabi, have fought against the extremists alongside Iraq’s regular military and police.
But the militias have been accused of abuses against Sunni populations in areas recaptured by government forces and there are fears over their future role in Iraq.
The agreement, which extends “cooperation and exchanging experiences in fighting terrorism”, was signed in Tehran by the Iranian defence minister Hossein Dehghan and his Iraqi peer Erfan Al Hiyali.
The agreement also covers border security, logistics and training.
Since the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq, Iran’s influence in the country has increased, empowering Shiite leaders and leaving Sunni people neglected and resentful of the central government, which contributed to the rise of ISIL.
With the extremists defeated in Mosul, the last major city under its control, many Sunnis fear a sectarian backlash as the country tries to rebuild.
The role of the Hashed Al Shaabi in Iraq has been an issue of wide contention and will be a key issue in elections next year.
The government passed a bill in November that made the Hashed a legitimate entity of Iraq’s security forces.
And on Saturday, Mr Al Abadi declared after meeting militias’ commanders that “the forces are an essential and neutral security entity and will remain within the structure of the Iraqi state”.
While maintaining that “the state is the main leader” of the security structure in the country, he said the Hashed “is a neutral security establishment, and it is here to stay”.
“It is our duty to protect it, because we are one,” Mr Al Abadi said.
The announcement is the clearest sign of support from the prime minister for the militants’ continued role in Iraq after ISIL’s defeat.
Unlike his predecessor, Nouri Al Malaki, who was widely condemned for his sectarian policies, Mr Al Abadi has been more conciliatory.
He has condemned sectarian violence carried out by the militias and tried to build ties with Sunni countries in the region. Last month, he travelled to Jeddah and met Saudi King Salman after the kingdom’s foreign minister, Adel Al Jubeir, visited Baghdad in February.
But the Hashed endorsement will raise concerns among Sunni leaders in Iraq.
Sarah Allawi, adviser to Iraqi vice president Ayad Allawi, said: “We thank the security forces for their efforts in liberating Mosul from ISIL. However, we now are entering a new phase rebuilding Iraq post-ISIL, which is aiming to achieve national reconciliation between political forces.”
The Hashed are an amalgamation of various groups with allegiances to Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Iraq’s top Shiite clerics Ali Al Sistani and Muqtada Al Sadr.
“Some subgroups have assumed political roles and will seek to leverage their roles in combating ISIL to win votes in Iraq’s 2018 elections,” said a report on the militias by the Carnegie Middle East Centre.
For militia members, the legitimacy of their struggle against ISIL is a direct result of a fatwa issued by Mr Al Sistani in response to the fall of Mosul in 2014, in which he called the fight a “sacred defence”.
“As of November 2016 and the passing of the Hashed Al
Shaabi law, the Hashed has become a formally institutionalised part of Iraq’s security apparatus tied to the office of the commander-in-chief,” said Fanar Haddad, senior research fellow in the National University of Singapore.
“However, unlike other security units, disbanding the Hashed would not be a straightforward administrative procedure, given their immense popularity and legitimacy among many Iraqis and given the Hashed’s powerful backers in Iraq and Iran”.
The Hashed’s role in defeat- ing ISIL has also given them support from other sections of Iraq, not just Shiites.
“The fact is that the Hashed will be a permanent feature of Iraq’s social, political and military landscapes for the foreseeable future,” Mr Haddad said.