Iraqi Kurdistan is under intense Iranian pressure to prevent it from becoming an alternative haven f

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[size=52]Iraqi Kurdistan is under intense Iranian pressure to prevent it from becoming an alternative haven for American forces[/size]

[size=45]Militia attacks complement the financial and political pressures on the region.
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Kurdish-American relations contrary to Iranian interests
Wednesday 01/03/2024
The strong relationship existing between the Iraqi Kurdistan region and the United States made it vulnerable to political and economic pressures from Iran’s Iraqi allies, before it recently turned into a field of war waged by Shiite militias under the title of “Axis of Resistance” solidarity. With the Gaza Strip, but it is part of an Iranian proxy war aimed at preventing the stability of American forces in the region.[/size]
[size=45]Erbil (Iraq) - The pressures placed on the Iraqi Kurdistan region by the Iraqi parties and factions forming the pro-Iran camp went beyond the political and economic context and took on a security dimension through the repeated attacks launched by Shiite militias on sites inside the region, which aroused the ire of his government and increased the tension in its relationship with the government. Federal, headed by Muhammad Shiaa Al-Sudani.[/size]
[size=45]Following an attack launched by militias on a site in Erbil that includes a headquarters for the Kurdish Peshmerga forces, the regional government accused the federal government of being unable to control the militias responsible for these attacks and pay the salaries of their members from public funds in exchange for starving the region’s residents by not transferring its share from the state’s general budget.[/size]
[size=45]With the repetition of these attacks, the region found itself in the midst of a proxy war waged by Iran through its armed Iraqi arms against the United States of America to prevent it from establishing a firm presence of its forces there by relying on its friendship with the authorities of the region, which owes Washington the experience of self-rule it entered after the American invasion of Iraq.
Nasser Harki: A country that finances militias and cuts the salaries of regional employees.
Iran found in the Gaza war an opportunity to move its militias against the remaining American forces on Iraqi soil. Washington is keen not to leave them with the stated goal of providing advice and technical assistance to the Iraqi forces in their war on terrorism, and another implicit one that the Iranians know. Well, it consists in staying close to the areas of Iranian movement on the Tehran-Baghdad-Damascus-Beirut axis.[/size]
[size=45]Iran finds in the current political and security situation in Iraq an opportunity to disrupt the American military presence on its territory, as it does not rely only on its militias, but also tries to invest to the maximum extent possible in the presence of the Shiite parties and factions loyal to it in power, represented by the coordination framework formed for the Sudanese government to implement its goal that it began. It has been working on it since the killing of its Revolutionary Guard Commander, Qassem Soleimani, in an air strike near Baghdad International Airport four years ago.[/size]
[size=45]The influential Shiite parties and factions recently resumed their demands to remove American forces from Iraq, while the Prime Minister was forced to go along with them.[/size]
[size=45]The Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government arouses the ire of Iran and its Iraqi allies with the strong relationship it has with the United States, which may find in the territory of the region relatively far from the range of movement of the Shiite militias a suitable haven for its forces if it is forced to withdraw from the remaining bases in other parts of Iraq.[/size]
[size=45]Military experts say that the United States retaining forces in the Kurdistan region without the approval of Baghdad is possible, given that the latter does not have options to remove them by force, as evidenced by its inability to expel the Turkish forces that have established bases on the territory of Iraq without coordination with its government and are still retaining them, but are working to support them in accordance with What was recently announced by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.[/size]
[size=45]Against this background, officials in the regional government accuse Shiite parties and factions participating in the formation of the Sudanese government of placing economic, financial and security pressure on their region with the aim of weakening it and destabilizing it.[/size]
[size=45]Regional government spokesman Peshwa Hormani said that the federal government “is silent and helpless in the face of the outlaw groups that are funded with salaries and armed by the federal government, and they move in front of it, transport weapons, missiles, and drones, and carry out terrorist attacks on official and military institutions.” But the government itself finds enough courage to cut off the livelihood of the people of Kurdistan, while these groups are funded with the same money.”[/size]
[size=45]Hormani warned that “the terrorist attack carried out by an outlaw force on a Peshmerga headquarters is a dangerous matter and a sign of war.”[/size]
[size=45]The Prime Minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government, Masrour Barzani, also condemned the attack and wrote on his account on the X platform, “The federal government must view any attack on the Kurdistan region as an attack on all of Iraq, and confront it with appropriate measures.” Continued inaction will encourage these perpetrators to continue committing their crimes,” he said, adding, “These people are exploiting state funds and weapons to attack the Kurdistan region and destabilize the entire country, which exposes it to the risk of reigniting the conflict in a country that has witnessed enough bloodshed.”[/size]
[size=45]The Iraqi government responded by saying through its spokesman, Al-Awdai, that the Kurdish spokesman’s statement “contained various unrealistic and irresponsible accusations due to the mixture of misleading information and false lies, especially the allegation of starving citizens.”[/size]
[size=45]Despite the tension caused by the aforementioned attack, the militias renewed their targeting of sites inside the region on Tuesday, according to what was announced by a security source who said that an armed drone was shot down over Erbil airport, where American and international forces are stationed.[/size]
[size=45]Commenting on these attacks, former member of the Security and Defense Committee in the Iraqi Parliament, Nasser Harki, said that “there is no justification for attacks by armed groups on the Kurdistan region,” stressing that “outlaw groups that attack the region are often identified during the investigation, but the government The Iraqi woman was unable to arrest her.”[/size]
[size=45]Harki echoed the position of the regional government, saying in press statements, “Iraq is a country of militias that is ready to cut the salaries of employees of a constitutional region, but in return it allocates a huge budget to armed groups that violate the law and attack the Kurdistan region with marches.”[/size]
[size=45]For his part, Mariwan Qarni, deputy head of the Kurdistan Democratic Party bloc in the Iraqi Parliament, called on the Sudanese government to find “a solution for these armed groups,” noting that “the party is not in favor of worsening the situation in Iraq, but it does not accept attempts to weaken the Kurdistan region.”[/size]
[size=45]He added in statements to the Kurdistan website “Twenty-Four”, “We in the Democratic Party have always focused on coexistence and peace, and we have always been in favor of solving problems by implementing the Iraqi constitution, and we have never been concerned with complicating the situation in Iraq, but we do not accept in any way that “Some parties are trying to weaken the Kurdistan region,” stressing that “groups that violate the law are supported from within the Iraqi government and funds are allocated to them.”[/size]
[size=45]He also considered that “the Iraqi government knows very well who these militia groups are and for whom they work, and it is aware of all their movements.”
Al-Arab newspaper[/size]
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