Iraq positioned for key role in resolving regional issues, former PM says

Dr Haider Al Abadi warned an incoming US administration that Iraq had a pivotal role to play in the region and should not remain unsupported

Former Iraqi Prime Minister Dr Haider Al Abadi says Iraq should not been seen solely through the lens of Iranian-US tension. Getty Images

Iraq has a “pivotal” role in the region and must not be seen solely through the lens of Iranian-US tension, a former prime minister of Iraq said.

Dr Haider Al Abadi, whose four-year term from September 2014 was marked by the US-led war to end ISIS’ invasion of Iraq, said the country now faced an “important historical moment” as it risked being drawn into war with Israel.

Iraq’s fate will be guided by the incoming US government’s new foreign policy, and Iraq’s own upcoming elections next year, Dr Al Abadi said. But the US and other international allies had a duty to continue supporting Iraq’s institutions and security.

“It is wrong to deal with Iraq as a marginal country, and it is also wrong, and a sin, to structurally link Iraq to thorny regional issues such as the Iranian issue or the Palestinian-Israeli conflict,” he said, speaking at the Iraq Initiative conference at Chatham House, the London-based international affairs think tank on Wednesday.

“Or to leave Iraq without rehabilitation, support and protection in the midst of a complex and explosive region. I believe that resolving many regional issues will depend on the nature of dealing with the Iraqi experience,” Dr Al Abadi said.

An Iraqi man, carrying the flag of Iraq, walks down an empty corniche in Basra in southern Iraq, during a two-day curfew as Iraq holds its first nationwide census. AFP

Leaked reports suggest that the Israeli military was preparing an imminent attack against Iraq, unless the Iraqi government took action against Iran-backed Shiite militias operating within its territory. The US has said it was doing everything it could to dissuade Israel from attacking Iraq, but was running out of leverage, according to the leaked reports.

Dr Al Abadi helped consolidate the militias’ control across Iraq during his four year premiership from 2014, when he included them in the US-led fight against IS. But on Thursday, he appeared to suggest that these militias should cede power to the Iraqi government. “The state must have control over the arms inside the country,” he said.

He described Iraq as a “pivotal” country in the Middle East, and a crossroads for Arab, Turkish and Persian cultures. “Our duty is geopolitical and geosocietal … linking three nations,” he said.

But Iraq’s position between Turkey and Iran also put it in a “geopolitical depression” that posed a challenge to Baghdad in coping with international interference. “Iraq is today paying the price for being, for being an arena, for achieving interests, settling scores [or] for passing deals at the expense of its sovereignty,” he said.

Iraq was caught between the “intensity of polarisation between the regional and international strategies in the region,” he said.

Speaking at a later session, Krikor Der-Hagopian, Incoming Foreign Affairs Advisor at the Office of Iraq's Prime Minister, said it was hoped the government would get an opportunity to present positive change to the new government.