Insurrection pressures U. S. to step back into the fray
CAIRO — U. S. President Barack Obama is under growing pressure to set aside years of hostility and start co- operating with Iran to counter the jihadist threat engulfing Iraq and its capital, Baghdad.
Ten years after George W. Bush declared “Mission Accomplished” in Iraq, Obama’s administration was openly admitting that it might have to recommit to the use of military force to reunite the country and check the long- term menace of the rise of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant ( ISIL). Britain too was offering counterterrorism expertise that would mean working alongside not just Iraqi troops, but Shiite militias and even Iranian special forces, only recently considered among the greatest threats to British interests in the region.
Iran is already sending units of its Revolutionary Guard to Iraq to help defend Baghdad from the onslaught being waged by ISIL, a Sunni jihadist offshoot of al- Qaida, according to reports emerging from Baghdad and Tehran.
State media quoted Iranian President Hassan Rouhani as telling the Iraqi prime minister, Nouri al- Maliki, who is Shiite: “The Islamic Republic of Iran will apply all its efforts on the international and regional levels to confront terrorism.”
It also cited former members of the Revolutionary Guard volunteering to join the fight.
ISIL forces continued to move toward Baghdad Friday, in cooperation with other Sunni militias.
A large part has been played by remnants of the Saddam Hussein regime, said to be operating as the so- called Naqshabandi Army under the authority of Izzat al- Douri, Saddam’s deputy who escaped the fall of Baghdad in 2003 and has eluded capture since. Posters showing both men were raised in Tikrit, Saddam’s birthplace, which was captured by the Islamists this week.
A force said to be a combination of several Sunni elements seized two towns, Saadiyah and Jalawla, in the mixed Sunni-Shiite province of Diyala north of Baghdad without opposition and was moving south. It was said to be meeting some resistance as it approached Baghdad from Iraqi security forces. Iraqis in the capital were reported to be flocking to army recruitment centres.
Abu Mohammed al- Adnani, an Islamic State of Iraq and Syria spokesman, promised its forces would seize Baghdad, then the holy cities of Karbala and Najaf, before attacking Tehran itself. That statement alone makes an Iranian move to defend Shia shrines inevitable, as the Iranians have done with holy Shia sites in Syria.
Obama has been criticized by the right that he is already selling out Israel and long- term national interests by planning a deal with Iran over its nuclear program. His policy in the Middle East has been to hope that constructive engagement with Sunni causes, such as the rebellion against President Bashar Assad, would help to moderate the jihadist threat posed by al- Qaida and its offshoots. But the past five years have seen a resurgence of jihadist activity, leading to ISIL’s sway over large parts of Syria and Iraq.
The Iranians have seized the opportunity to assert themselves as defenders of Shiite Muslims in a sectarian conflict, and are taking delight in demanding their longtime foes in Washington join them in the struggle.
“We can work with Americans to end the insurgency in the Middle East,” a senior Iranian official told the Reuters news agency. “We are very influential in Iraq, Syria and many other countries.”
Hooshang Amirahmadi, a U. S.- based Iranian analyst with links to the regime in Tehran, said the prospect of cooperation was realistic. “Both sides have a common interest” in fighting ISIL, said Amirahmadi, an unsuccessful candidate in last year’s Iranian presidential election. This time the situation for Iran is very dire because it considers Iraq to be its backyard. Whether the U. S. helps or otherwise, I think Iran will get engaged with the civil war in Iraq.
“The U. S. can provide air cover and air strikes and Iran will take care of the ground side, because the Americans are afraid these days of involvement in any ground fighting. So we do have a natural situation for co- operation.”
America’s Sunni Muslim Gulf allies are already furious with Obama for his slow rapprochement with Iran, their great rival. But even they have begun holding out the prospect of détente with Iran in recent weeks as parts of the Middle East spin out of the control of either side.