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ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The current US administration has “reverted” Washington’s commitment to Iraq and allowed neighboring Iran to expand its outreach and influence over Iraq, a former US official said earlier this month, criticizing the administration for reneging its importance to Iraq and allowing Iran to flourish.
“I think this administration has reverted, gone back to the traditional US view, that while Iran plays a negative role, Iraqis are perfectly capable of creating their own problems, and also perfectly capable of solving them on their own,” Andrew L. Peek, former deputy assistant secretary for Iraq and Iran at the US State Department during the administration of former president Donald Trump told Rudaw’s Nwenar Fatih, criticizing the current approach and adding that “the role of Iran is so deleterious, so negative that it must be contested to create an Iraq that is more stable and responds to the will of the people.”
The expanding influence of Tehran on Baghdad following the October formation of the new Iraqi government led by parties loyal to Iran has rolled back on the progress made in the massive 2019 protests – dubbed the Tishreen Movement – which sought to expel and curb Iranian-backed militias in the country, according to Peek.
“Politics in Baghdad has returned to normal – a normal that is more pro-Iranian than I think voters and protestors had hoped for, and is more dominated by some of the worst parts of Iranian-backed militia groups,” he said.
Iraqis headed to the election polls in October 2021, the aim of holding early elections was to form a government that would fulfill the demands of thousands of protestors who took to the streets of Baghdad and several southern provinces in 2019, forcing then-prime minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi to resign.
After over a year of suffocating political deadlock and with pro-Iran Coordination Framework’s main rival Muqtada al-Sadr isolated from the process, the country elected Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani from the framework as premier, who installed a government largely favorable to Iran.
A government that looks favorably towards Tehran for Washington means that it “will not be tremendously helpful in addressing issues like missile trafficking, proxy groups operating against Iraq’s neighbors, a government that will not be hopeful for the United States or for the Iraqi people for strengthening Iraq’s democratic process,” Peek warned.
“And an Iraq that sometimes, at its worst, be complicit in helping Iran recover financially from the sanctions that are upon it.”
Peek strongly denied any allegations that Washington was behind the massive protests in Iraq in 2019.
“I can’t imagine how we have the ability to put thousands and thousands of protestors on the streets in Baghdad. I wish that many Iraqis listened to us and did what we wanted, it would make our life much easier,” he said.
While Iranian proxy attacks inside the country have seen a sharp fall since Sudani’s cabinet took office, Peek said it is linked with the “very high level” of Iranian influence, stressing that such a government does not serve the best interests of the Iraqi people.
- US in Iraq -
While American officials have reiterated over the past months that Washington remains committed to Iraq and “is not going anywhere,” Peek warned that the decision of the administration under President Joe Biden to neglect the competition with Iran in Iraq has diminished its influence.
“I think there’s an element of nostalgia, of looking back and expectation of the time when Iraq … will get the very highest level of attention from the US government,” he said, but affirmed that Iraq can remain a priority despite it falling in the pecking order behind Russia and China.
According to Peek, the Biden administration refusing to view countering Iran as a top priority means that Iraq’s importance to the US “naturally decreases.”
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