US sanctions await Baghdad if it decides to replace the F-16 with the Russian ghost

[size=52]US sanctions await Baghdad if it decides to replace the F-16 with the Russian ghost[/size]

[size=45]Baghdad / Tamim Al-Hassan[/size]
[size=45]Parties close to Tehran are trying to persuade the government to buy aircraft from Russia after the American F-16 has stopped due to the strikes by "Katyusha groups." And if Baghdad goes to complete that deal, it may be exposed to economic sanctions from the United States, which the latter had threatened several years ago.[/size]
[size=45]Iraq faces a large fiscal deficit in the 2021 budget, and the external debt is more than 20 billion dollars. Iraq has Russian, Czech and Korean aircraft, as well as the (F-16) - which is the most important weapon so far - where the rest are mostly used for training and others have been manufactured for about 40 years. Informed political sources indicate that "parties in Iraq always raise talk about buying weapons from different countries with the United States of America, such as Russia." Those sources interpret the demands of arming Moscow as "coming with the support of parties close to Tehran inside Iraq and it is part of the conflict between America and Iran." Western reports and statements from Iraqi lawmakers said that Baghdad would contract "in the coming months" to buy an air defense system and aircraft from Russia.[/size]
[size=45]Washington will refuse[/size]
[size=45]The sources who spoke to Al-Mada pointed out that "there is great difficulty in purchasing weapons from Russia, because the United States is obligated to protect Iraq within the strategic agreement, and it is the one who determines the sources of arms, otherwise sanctions will be directed to Baghdad." The "F-16" aircraft that Iraq imported in a contract concluded in 2014, had turned into a "piece of scrap" due to the withdrawal of the American company involved in operating and repairing them.[/size]
[size=45]And last week, the American "Lockheed Martin" company, which represents the backbone in the operation and maintenance of these aircraft, decided to withdraw the maintenance teams for F-16 planes for reasons it said were security. "In coordination with the US government and with employee safety as our top priority, Lockheed Martin is relocating the F-16 team that is based in Iraq," Joseph Lamarca Jr., the company's communications officer, said in a statement. According to Western newspapers, the company has 70 employees at the base of Balad, 50 of them will be transferred to the United States and about 20 to Erbil in the Kurdistan region.[/size]
[size=45]Washington accuses "militias" linked to Iran of using military bases and diplomatic representations in Iraq.[/size]
[size=45]The "F-16" aircraft are among the most important weapons in Iraq, as they play a crucial role in controlling the borders and striking the remnants of "ISIS" in rugged areas.[/size]
[size=45]Iraq has 36 F-16 aircraft, which it had imported from the United States through a deal it struck in 2011, with a value of more than $ 4 billion. Iraq received the last meal of the planes, in mid-2019, according to the Iraqi Ministry of Defense.[/size]
[size=45]Old planes[/size]
[size=45]Informed sources indicate that "the rest of the aircraft that Iraq imported, such as the Russian Sukhoi in 2014, are not efficient (F-16), as the first dates back to the eighties of the last century, and they were modified before they were sold to Iraq."[/size]
[size=45]According to Western sites concerned with military news, Iraq has fewer than 20 Russian (Sukhoi-25) aircraft, out of 21 received their last meal in 2016. These reports confirmed that at least 3 of the Russian planes were decommissioned, due to exposure to massive damage. .[/size]
[size=45]The Sukhoi-25 aircraft arrived in Iraq in several batches, starting from June of 2014. Most of the aircraft that Iraq received were present since the days of East Germany, which merged into the Federal Republic in 1990, where these aircraft were maintained by Russian technicians before they were transferred to Baghdad. The deputy head of the Security and Defense Committee in the House of Representatives, Nayef Al-Shammari, announced last Saturday that the government would contract in the coming months to purchase an air defense system, but another member of the committee opposed his colleague and ruled that out.[/size]
[size=45]And there is talk about the "Su-57" stealth aircraft, where the price of one plane is estimated at 100 million dollars.[/size]
[size=45]Because of the financial crisis[/size]
[size=45]Badr Al-Ziyadi, a member of the Parliament's Security Committee, says: "It is ruled out that Iraq will buy new aircraft at the present time, because the country is facing financial difficulties." The size of the budget deficit is 30 trillion dinars, while the debts payable are between 23 and 25 billion dollars, according to government statements.[/size]
[size=45]But Nayef Al-Shammari, deputy head of the Security Committee, said in his recent statements that the fiscal budget for 2021 "included allocations to provide the armed forces with modern equipment to keep pace with the development in the armies of the world." He also indicated that the committee had held several meetings with the Minister of Defense and the Commander of Air Defense in this regard.[/size]
[size=45]Last year, Imad al-Zuhairi, inspector of the Ministry of Defense, revealed that Iraq intended to purchase a fifth-generation Russian Su-57 fighter. Badr Al-Ziyadi, a member of the Parliament's Security Committee, points out that his committee "supports diversification of arms purchases, especially from Russia, but not at the present time." The United States had threatened to "punish Baghdad" due to news of the recent purchase of the Russian S-400 air defense system.[/size]
[size=45]But Al-Ziyadi says that "the strategic agreement with the United States does not prevent us from purchasing aircraft from other countries," explaining that "Iraq is currently losing the (F-16) aircraft because it has an electronic life, and remaining standing without maintenance means that it is consumed."[/size]
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