If anything were to underline the seriousness with which the international community has taken Sunday’s drone attack on the UAE’s Barakah nuclear power plant, it is the sheer number of global voices that have condemned it.
The International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN Security Council and the EU are just some of the transnational bodies that called out the attack in recent days. The US, Russia, India, Pakistan and Canada have joined many of the UAE’s Arab neighbours in highlighting the exceptionally dangerous nature of launching drones towards a civilian nuclear reactor.
More clarity about the attack emerged on Tuesday when the UAE’s Ministry of Defence said that the three drones aimed at Barakah originated from Iraqi territory. Similarly, Saudi Arabia has reported that its own air defences destroyed three UAVs that entered its airspace from Iraq. Although Baghdad has denounced the Barakah incident, there has yet to be an immediate response to the UAE's statement that the strike was launched from Iraqi territory.
Iraq’s neighbours need to be reassured that Baghdad is serious and genuine when it says it will take action to prevent the country from being used as a springboard for further attacks. However, events in Iraq over the past days and weeks have been anything but reassuring.
As well as the recent attacks on the UAE and Saudi Arabia, this week Kataib Hezbollah – an Iran-aligned militia – hinted it could strike Jordan, warning that its “patience is starting to run out” with Amman’s relationship with the US. Iraq's array of pro-Iran militias has struck Jordan previously, as well as claiming attacks on several Gulf countries. These factions have also turned their fire on fellow Iraqi citizens, recently launching hundreds of drones and rockets at the country’s Kurdistan region and Iraqi oil installations.
As Iraq’s political parties continue their negotiations about filling the country’s many empty Cabinet seats, the pernicious role played by pro-Iran militias in enforcing Tehran’s agenda continues. Successive Iraqi governments have tried to hedge their bets by treading a careful path to avoid antagonising Iran. In doing so, Iraqi sovereignty has been weakened and Baghdad’s relationships with its Gulf neighbours have been put in jeopardy.
What should focus attention on Iran’s cynical exploitation of Iraq’s political and governance weaknesses should be the real dangers posed by the Barakah incident. “This is a nuclear site in the Middle East, where the consequences of an attack could be most serious,” IAEA chief Rafael Grossi told the Security Council this week. “It is an operating nuclear power plant, and as such, it hosts thousands of kilograms of nuclear material in the core of the reactors, fresh and spent fuel.”
Iraq’s new government must be alert to the reality that attacks coming from its territory risk creating an unprecedented catastrophe in the Middle East. The time for tolerating unaccountable armed groups that work at the behest of a foreign power is over.
