Iraqi prime minister asks for ‘sustainable support’ from the U.S.
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Version 0 of 1. Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said Wednesday that his country needs “sustainable support . . . that we can rely on” from the United States, including heavy weapons and tanks. While it cannot pay for them now, Abadi said, “Iraq can pay for it later . . . We have enough oil to pay for it in later years.” Speaking to a small group of reporters on his first official visit here, Abadi said that airstrikes by the U.S.-led coalition aiding Iraq’s fight against the Islamic State were “crucial.” “It’s important and it’s vital,” he said. In a meeting with Abadi on Tuesday, President Obama pledged an additional $200 million in humanitarian aid to Iraq, but made no promises regarding additional military assistance. Administration officials said that, in addition to weapons delivery and training for Iraqi forces over the past year, delivery of 36 F-16 fighter jets is planned and 30 Iraqi pilots are in the training pipeline. The falling price of oil and fighting against the Islamic State have left Iraq with a significant deficit in its $105 billion budget. Abadi, who meets later this week with international financial institutions, will ask for more support from the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. Speaking fluent English from years spent in exile in Britain while Saddam Hussein ruled Iraq, Abadi was forthcoming and appeared far more comfortable than his predecessor, former prime minister Nouri al-Maliki, in addressing his country’s problems. In addition to U.S. support against the militants, Abadi said assistance that Iraq is receiving from neighboring Iran is also “crucial historically and at present . . . because Iran considers the threat by Daesh [the Islamic State] to its own national security.” While coalition troops acting as trainers and advisers inside Iraq number about 3,600, more than two thirds of them Americans, Abadi said there are also “approximately 110 advisers” from Iran. Some of them are at the front lines where they have been posting pictures of their participation on social media. “Why are they sending them?,” Abadi said of the photographs. “Somebody there is trying to do something, or to send a message. Probably [the Iranians] want to poke the Americans, to tell them: well, we are here.” Abadi speculated that Iran was perhaps trying to influence separate negotiations with the United States over its nuclear program, and he advised the Americans “don’t pay attention to these pictures. Don’t be antagonized; the Iranians are very good at it.” He said he favored a nuclear deal “if it reduces polarization in the region, which is turning into a sectarian” conflict that is “very bad for us.” While the Islamic State is losing support among Iraq’s Sunni population, Abadi said, “still these are quite powerful fighters. They came from across the world, they are ideologized,” and their determination has increased as their “backs are against the wall.” Asked about the efforts of his Shiite-led government to gain support from Iraq’s minority Sunni and Kurdish communities, Abadi said, “I have to admit, things don’t change in a few months. We have started to change, to improve things so people will see things from a different angle . . . I’m not claiming that everything is rosy and has become positive, no. It doesn’t turn out that way . . . every section feels they are threatened or didn’t get what they want.” Much of that resentment, he said, stems from the 2003 U.S. invasion and overthrow of Saddam Hussein. “I think anticipation from 2003 was very high, and nobody got what they wanted. So all are unhappy. “ While Abadi acknowledged that Iraq’s army remains about 80 percent Shiite, he said that U.S.-supported efforts to recruit fighters in Anbar province, the Sunni homeland, are progressing. He said that 5,000 young men there have now been signed up; all, he said, would be given salaries and weapons. Asked about the next steps in the effort to defeat the Islamic State, Abadi indicated that an offensive in Mosul, the northwestern city that is the center of militant control, was some distance in the future. First, he said, control of Anbar must be achieved to provide road access for troops to reach Ninewa, the province where Mosul is located. “I’m working on a timetable, which I’m not going to reveal,” he said. “That timetable may change as well, because it depends on . . . our forces, the coalition partners, the Kurds, on armament which we may or may not have.” |