... Russia and Iraq have been exploiting have tangible potential. Military sales and energy cooperation are the most obvious ones, but Moscow is also becoming what it sees as a “natural ally” of Iraq in the fight against terrorism. Since Russia, Syria, Iran and Iraq formed an information-sharing group in 2015, Russia has sought to deepen this area of cooperation through joint operations against radical groups. Russian lawmaker
Ziyad Sabsabi
has coordinated activities within that group to rescue Russian children ...
... In other words, the restoration of the Syrian armed forces did not begin with the Shiite ideology in mind, but rather with the aim of increasing the efficiency of pro-government forces in the fight against the opponents of Damascus.
The situation in Iraq was somewhat different. Pro-Iranian groups in the country had been set up prior to the 2011 withdrawal of U.S. troops and enjoyed direct influence on the Iraqi ministries of interior and defence, even before the emergence of so-called Islamic State in 2014 [
4
].4 On the other hand,...
... Sergey Lavrov confirmed that Moscow was providing “weapons to the Kurds through the Iraqi government” to combat the Islamic State. It also was revealed that the Kurds are represented in the intelligence information center in Baghdad alongside Russia, Iraq, Iran, and Syria. In addition to the expansion of security relations, Russian companies have been investing in Iraqi Kurdistan’s energy sector. In February 2017, Russia’s state-owned oil giant Rosneft became the first international oil company to pay ...
... and Europeans find ways to better coordinate their strategy with Russia, Syria and Iran — and seek out a rapprochement between Saudi Arabia and Iran? Can Turkey and other states help mediate the Syrian conflict while ultimately bringing the Syrians, Iranians and Saudis into a peace accord?
How should the U.S., Russia, and Europeans deal with the conflict between Turkey, Syria and the Kurds, and between Iraq and the Kurds, given Turkish, Syrian, and Iraqi option to the possibility that the Kurds might use the Syrian conflict to achieve independence in differing regions? Can a loose Kurdish confederation — that does not challenge existing borders — ...
... positive and negative consequences. Political gains may proceed from demonstration of determination, increased international role and responsibility of the Russian Federation, its ability to cooperate under crisis with a variety of powers - the US, EU, Iran, Iraq, Egypt, Israel, Hezbollah, Saudi Arabia, the Syrian leadership, part of the Syrian opposition (although with different degree of success). A significant contribution of the Russian Federation to the collective efforts to achieve a settlement could ...
..., so intractable, and so long; it is about so much more than just Syria when you throw the age-old Sunni-Shiite sectarian rivalries into the mix, which have been red-hot since the Lebanese Civil War, continuing through the Iranian Revolution and the Iran-Iraq War, through the U.S. invasion of Iraq, and now through conflict in Yemen and Syria.
Recruits are coming from all over the world—even young girls from the West—to join ISIS in Syria (some 30,000 over the past few years, according to ...
... uprising which led to the Syrian Civil War, 2.) was not even not the among first Western nations formally recognizing the opposition, 3.) has been very lightly involved compared with other major international meddlers in this conflict (e.g. Russia, Iran, Hezbollah, the Gulf states…), and 4.) since the overall post-2003 Iraq mess, for which the U.S. does bear a majority of overall responsibility, was actually at its best levels of security all throughout the first two years of the protests/fighting in Syria, we cannot even begin to argue that the U.S. destabilizing Iraq ...
... “Surge”—while having seen no serious effort at politics on the part of Iraq’s government, having seen that our leverage and influence (being eclipsed by Iran) was clearly no longer high enough in Iraq produce meaningful results, and having seen Iraq clearly align itself with Iran over America, it made sense to get out. The “Surge” and subsequent maintaining and improving of its security gains may not have 100% fulfilled our moral and ethical responsibility for all the damage we caused and contributed to in Iraq ...
... to Iraq. At least some of these fighters, as well as those scrambled later, were flown by Iranian pilots
[2]
. These planes would later play an important role in fighting ISIS, carrying out a number of combat missions.
airliners.net
Su-25K, sent to Iraq by Iran
Baghdad would inevitably have fallen if it were not for the emergence of a peoples’ militia and assistance from Iran, which sent its Islamic Revolutionary Guards to Iraq.
It seems that the blitz ISIS offensive took the U.S. by surprise, at ...
... including Europeans and Iranians, were part of an intense behind the scenes diplomatic-ballet-of-a-process (or perhaps mosh pit is a better term?), pushed and prodded along by the U.S. and shaped by it each step of the way. The Obama Administration united Iraq, Iran and others against the biggest obstacle to political progress, and now that the obstacle is removed, Iraqis of all stripes—Sunnis, Shiites, Kurds, Yazidis, Christians, and others—are genuinely giving Dr. Abadi a chance. So is America ...
