ارشيف

Iraq and the conflict of influence between the USA and the Iranian regime

مركز الروابط النظام الايراني المستفيد الاول من الاحتلال الاميركي للعراق

Iraq has become a pivotal state in the Arab, regional and Middle Eastern environment, with an international presence since  the date of the ninth of April – 2003,  and it  is home to the influence of great powers like the USA  and regional like the  Iranian regime  , these two countries, and due to the  levels of material strength and non-material, they did not hesitate to intervene to the   smallest details of the political, security and economic scene , which was not surprising in the  light of the situation that the US occupation of Iraq led to it, as it has resulted in the existence of a fragile and helpless state (failed state), and also a presence of the conflicting  parties and forces , in which their political calculations were based on the conviction that the settlement of the internal fighting  is not possible without  external support, not to mention that the sectarian and ethnic dimensions, which were   constantly present in the majority of the Iraqi crisis , and has strengthened    foreign interventions.

 The aggression and then the occupation of Iraq is part of the vision of an American strategy to re-order the  situations  in the Middle East, and from this perspective, the USA has worked to achieve a number of targets in Iraq, the most important : to  control of oil and take advantage of the strategic location of Iraq and to contain and confront hostile states or non-friendly .  and promote and ensure the security of Israel .

In spite of achieving some of these goals by the American administration, however,  but in the long run, the cost of staying in the territory of Iraq was risen , also the failure of the bet on Iraq   as a starting point to impose the American project was revealed and  then the policy  of  US administration  towards Iraq since 2010 – in order to avoid further losses   – was based on three pillars : to re-regulate the relationship between Baghdad and Washington, rearrange the relationship between the parties of  the political process, to  withdraw its troops fully from  Iraq.

The Iranian  regime is the first beneficiary of the US occupation of Iraq and the fall of its regime, which  formed an impenetrable bulwark  against its regional extension , and it is no secret to anyone  that the Iranian regime is the  strongest and most prominent regional  player in Iraq.

The question in this context is  how  both the United States and the regime of Iran had translated their  influence in Iraq, and which one is the greater threat to the present and future of Iraq ?

The United States is present in Iraq to prevent the collapse of the Iraqi political system which was established after the occupation of Iraq, and to combat terrorism and to this objective, it  spread its forces in Iraqi airports as an airport of al- Taji and  International Baghdad airport,  Habbaniyah airport , Assad base  airport , Al-hareer airport in Arbil and Erbil Airport , and to  fight  terrorism, the United States is maintaining  of various  military units in Iraq including :  Abrams tanks,  surface to surface missiles and troop carriers and armored vehicles and all types of aircraft, including reconnaissance planes and armed drones and  there  are  special operations forces, and there are special forces of the international coalition under the auspices of the United States of America.

 As for Iran, it is  located on the outskirts of Samarra, Baghdad and  the level of Iranian influence in Iraq reaches  to the level of intervention of  “Agaa Mradiagn” the military attaché  at the Iranian embassy  in Iraq,  to the meetings of the joint coordination centers, this attache has an army of Iranian military advisers who identify military targets and issue orders to   Iraqi warplanes  to bombing it . This does not mean that there is an Iranian American coordination   in the joint operations center in Iraq, and the proof is that some of the meetings which  held in this center  were not attended by the military representative of the United States in Iraq if attended by the Iranian military attache “Agaa Mradiagn.”

The Iranian Revolutionary Guards of various military components etc. in various Iraqi provinces,   was one of the influence tools of the Iranian regime in Iraq , and there are many Iranians advisers in the Iraqi  defense and interior  ministries , but those  advisers had  broad authority to make contracts in these two ministries, as there is in Iraq, an Iranian drones  led by Iranian geophysical forces to provide support for  Shia militias in Iraq and they are  Iranian regime tools in Iraq , but this time, they are  an Iraqi tools and  it is on the level of security  are represented by  the Shiite militias that are not underestimated in terms of its strong negative impact on the Iraqi situation as a whole, and on the media level, there are many Iraqi satellite channels that are financially supported  by the Iranian regime to instill  Iranian ideas on the ground in Iraq and perhaps the most important idea of ​​velayat-e faqih, which, if it is succeeded , and applied on the ground , Iraq become officially  affiliated to the Iranian regime, and there are also many sites “e” on the “Internet” international information network, which is also financed by it to the service of its strategic objectives in Iraq and then its geography.

There is no doubt that Iraq is of strategic importance in the policy of both the United States and the Iranian regime, but the  policies experienced  by them in Iraq show clearly  the apparent contradiction between them , the practice of which may positively and negatively affect  on the present and the future of Iraq.  We  can monitor those policies as follows:  At a time when the United States to provide financial aid to Iraq through financial grants  provided by it  , the Iranian regime worked to promote trade and economic ties with Iraq to get financial gains, especially in the era of former Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to ease international sanctions, especially the economic ones imposed on it over its nuclear program. The United States supports  Iraqi civil society to establish a democratic society, while the Iranian regime is working to deepen the differences between the people of the Iraqi society, for the demolition of Iraqi civil society and if it is found that community, it  should be directly linked with the Iranian ministry of intelligence (Ettelaat).

 the United States and its allies are fighting ISIS  “Daash,” the war that cost it billions of dollars for Iraq to regain its geographical cohesion, which strongly supports the battle of Mosul against that organization, and with the Iraqi  National Guard  Act, which is one of the most important paragraphs of the government program for Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, the United States with the reconstruction of the Iraqi military and  security forces , and  enhance their self-confidence and its combat capabilities and the dismantling of militias, the popular crowd, which committed many crimes against humanity in Diyala and earlier in Tikrit, so the battle to liberate Al-Ramadi from the control of ISIS without the participation of the popular crowd.  And maintaining the security of Iraq’s Kurdistan region and its economic prosperity and political development.

And  US policies in Iraq is met with Arab support, while the Iranian regime does not care for war against ISIS  ,noting that the Iranian regime   is  with the Iraqi unified political system , but weak to make it easier to control it but also be an Iranian passage to link Tahran , Baghdad, Damascus, Beirut up to the coast of eastern Mediterranean , so the Iranian regime against the battle of  Mosul, as they were against the battle to liberate Al-Ramadi  because Iran realizes the defeat of ISIS is meant to strengthen US influence in Iraq, and then inactivate this  corridor “Alclodor”  and it is also against the National Guard law , which allows for the Sunni areas  to run their provinces by themselves away from Iranian control , while  the Iranian regime  is supporting  the existence of Shiite militias as a political and security force affiliated to it  on the top of Iraqi situation  like the Hezbollah militia in Lebanon, and is working to disrupt the political life if  Tehran desired  so what is evidenced for it, the political and security role   Hezbollah  plays in favor of the Iranian regime since its inception in the eighties of  the last century and until the present day, this party for more than a year  is working to disrupt the presidential election as long as is not consistent with the interests of the Iranian regime in Lebanon. Also  its leader Hassan Nasrallah publicly adopts  the idea of ​​velayat-e faqih.  There is no doubt that these Iranian policies in Iraq is not to be welcomed by the Arab states, particularly Saudi Arabia and its allies from the Arab and regional countries that confront the Iranian regime  militarily through its agents deployed in some Arab countries like the agent  Huthi and Ali Abdullah Saleh in Yemen, and the agent Bashar al-Assad in Syria.  Finally, with regard to the policy of the Iranian regime in the Kurdistan region of Iraq it could be argued that the Iranian regime  works to raise the Kurdish conflict within the Kurdish House between the Kurdish Altaghier movement ( change) and major Kurdish parties, the Kurdistan Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan.

Based on what it is  mentioned above, it is very clear the depth of strategic conflict   of influence between the United States and the Iranian regime in Iraq and the conflict is more like a game theory in international relations, the gains that the United States achieved in Iraq, is the loss of the Iranian regime, and vice versa. For example, the non-ratification of the Iraqi Council of Representatives on the US-Iraqi agreement, noting that it is considered  the loss for the United States of America and the gain of the Iranian regime in spite of retaining the strategic framework agreement with Iraq. While  the non-participation of militias, the popular crowd at the Battle of Ramadi, is counting a gain to the American administration and the loss for  the Iranian regime,  based on  the principle of profit and loss in the conflict of influence between them, any influence that will earn Iraq, is Iran’s influence or the US, or will be sharing influence  between them? Or that the Iraqi people through the national forces in a historic moment  will address all the social, economic and political illnesses suffered after 2003? To keep the unity of the Iraqi state, away from both influences, and  it works on the establishment of a state citizen.

Rawabet Research and Strategic Studies Center

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