Russia-Iraq Military Cooperation?

• 10.22.2015, 10:50
• Arpine Hovsepyan
•  Near East,  World,  Analytics

Against the background of increasing military cooperation between Russia and Syria the the possibility of similar cooperation between Russia and Iraq is discussed. In particular, before the end of October the Iraqi parliament plans to hold a vote on seeking support of Russian forces in the fight against the "Islamic State". According to RIA Novosti, a deputy from state of law coalition, Muwafaq al-Rubaie said.

This coalition is the largest Shiite political power in Iraq. The coalition is led by the former Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki. For this reason, al-Rubaie Muwafaq claims that a request for support from Russia will be approved by a majority in the Iraqi parliament. "It does not matter whether the Sunni and Kurdish members will support this request. It does not change anything, because we have enough power in the parliament," Al-Rubaie said, who previously worked as an adviser on national security issues in the government of Al-Maliki.

Discussions on deepening the Russian-Iraqi military cooperation are held in various formats. The Delegation of the Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation of Russia in the framework of the visit to Baghdad has revised a number of agreements with Iraq in this field. According to RIA Novosti, the Russian delegation stressed the readiness of the Russian Federation to support Iraq in the fight against terrorism and resolve all issues related to contracts concluded earlier.

On October 19 Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi in Baghdad met with the Russian ambassador in Baghdad Ilya Morgunov. The Russian ambassador conveyed to the Prime Minister of Iraq a message from Russian President Vladimir Putin, which said about "Russia's desire to develop bilateral relations with Iraq in various fields, in particular in the field of armaments", and share information for countering the "Islamic State."

Discussions on military cooperation between Russia and Iraq have their reasons. Firstly, it should be viewed in the context of increasing Russian military presence in the Middle East as a whole. In addition, now in Iraq, there are appropriate conditions for the expansion of Russian influence. It is primarily about a specific change in the strategic cooperation of Iraq and the United States. This change in the relationship became apparent when in 2011, the US military forces were withdrawn from Iraq, and the Iraqi army could not resist the advancing of IS and lost large parts of its territories. At the same time the US-led actions against the IS today do not give the desired result.