Tillerson sends blunt message to Iran: get out of Iraq
▶ Creation of joint council gets US backing for closer co-operation on economic as well as security-related issues
Iranian-backed Iraqi militias and their advisers must “go home” now that the fight against ISIL is almost over, the US secretary of state Rex Tillerson said yesterday.
“Iranian militias that are in Iraq, now that the fight against Daesh and ISIS is coming to a close, those militias need to go home,” Mr Tillerson said in Riyadh, where he spoke after meeting Saudi foreign minister Adel Al Jubeir.
“The foreign fighters in Iraq need to go home and allow the Iraqi people to regain control.”
Tens of thousands of Iraqis heeded a call to arms in 2014 after ISIL seized a third of the country’s territory.
They formed the Popular Mobilisation Units, which receive funding and training from Tehran and are a part of Iraqi security.
A senior US official said Mr Tillerson’s call was directed at those units and the Quds Force, the foreign paramilitary and espionage arm of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.
The US and its Gulf Arab allies are concerned by Iranian attempts to use the gains against ISIL in Iraq and in Syria to expand its influence in the region.
Iran-allied militias and Iranian advisers were sent to Syria to support the regime of president Bashar Al Assad against an uprising and are now also involved in fighting ISIL there.
Mr Tillerson was in Riyadh for the launch yesterday of the Saudi-Iraqi Co-ordination Council, which aims to promote co-operation betweeen the two countries in the fight against terrorism in the region.
The council will also help with the rebuilding of Iraqi areas destroyed in the battle against the extremists.
The formation of the council comes as Saudi Arabia rebuilds ties with Iraq that were severed after the 1990 invasion of Kuwait by Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.
Mr Al Jubeir stressed the historic ties between the two countries, which share a border, vast oil resources and many of the same tribes.
Saudi Arabia and Iraq yesterday launched a joint council that they said would improve co-operation and battle terrorism in the Middle East.
“We confront in our region serious challenges of extremism, terrorism and attempts to destabilise security and stability in our countries which necessitate our full co-ordination to confront these challenges,” Saudi King Salman said.
Iraqi prime minister Haider Al Abadi and US secretary of state Rex Tillerson also spoke at the event.
“We believe that our security, economy and interest must be formulated by joint action among the countries of the region,” Mr Al Abadi said.
“We want everyone to live in stability and prosperity. We are ready to unite our efforts with our brothers’ efforts to start a new era of peace, stability and development.”
Backed by a US-led coalition, Iraq has been successful in driving ISIL from almost all of the territory it seized in 2014,and has worked with other countries in the region in the fight against terrorism.
The council marks another step in thawing relations that have been cool since the Iraq invasion of Kuwait in 1990.
“This event highlights the strength and breadth as well as the great potential of the relations between your countries,” Mr Tillerson said.
“The joint co-ordination council will not only lead to closer co-operation in the fight against ISIL, but will also help to support the rehabilitation of facilities and infrastructure in the areas liberated,” he said.
“The council will also contribute to reforms that will grow and diversify Iraq’s private sector. Such reforms will encourage the foreign investment that is vital to Iraq’s reconstruction efforts. This will be critical to winning the peace that has been earned through the hardfought military gains.”
He called for the Iran-backed Iraqi militias that were mobilised to fight ISIL, and their Iranian advisers, to “go home” now that the fight against the militants was almost over.
Iraq is hoping to tap Saudi Arabia for economic backing as both oil-dependent economies have suffered from a prolonged price slump.
While Baghdad is seeking economic assistance, Riyadh is looking to counter the influence in of Iran in Iraq, which has grown under the Shiite-led governments that followed the fall of the Saddam regime after the 2003 US invasion.
Saudi Arabia has recently welcomed Iraqi figures including Moqtada Al Sadr, the Shiite Iraqi cleric who commands huge support in his country.
Saeed Al Wahabi, a Saudi analyst, said the kingdom had made a concerted effort to promote co-operation with Iraq.
“Saudi Arabia set a plan to benefit from the new realities in Iraq following the ongoing defeat of ISIS and the rise of Kurds,” Mr Al Wahabi said. “Ministers and other senior officials including the Saudi intelligence and the ministry of interior are now authorised and encouraged to promote co-operation with Iraq.”
The Saudi-Iraqi meetings were a sign of Riyadh’s intention to avert what was developing into a sectarian divide between the countries in favour of bolstering the regional fight against terrorism, he said.
The meetings are also an attempt by Iraqi politicians to gain support ahead of elections early next year.
Talks between Mr Al Abadi and Saudi officials yesterday also touched on the attempt by Iraqi Kurdistan to secede from the country through last month’s independence referendum, a move that was condemned by the kingdom.
Mr Al Abadi called the referendum a “departure from the constitution that requires all of us in the region to do our duty to protect unity”.
The launch of the council comes a day after Saudi oil minister Khaled Al Falih’s visit to Baghdad, where he called for the strengthening of co-operation to boost crude prices.
Speaking at the opening of the Baghdad International Fair, Mr Al Falih praised what he called “the new Iraq, on the ambitious road to prosperity and growth while strengthening its relations with the world”.
The council marks another step in thawing relations that have been cool since the Iraq invasion of Kuwait in 1990