Posted on 10/19/2014 6:20:08 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
New Iraqi defense minister Khaled al-Obeidi has delivered his first official speech, insisting that the Kurdistan Region must hand back terrorists that have been living in the KRI.
Al-Obeidi is a Sunni, was approved as the new Iraqi defense minister along with Mohammed Salem al-Ghabban, a Shia, who was appointed interior minister.
“The Kurdistan Region should hand back criminals who have been charged with terrorist acts to the federal government, so they can face justice,” said Al-Obeidi.
“The Kurdistan Region security forces and Iraqi police should arrest all those criminals, as they are threats to the security and stability of the Kurdistan Region as well Iraq,” added the new Iraqi defense minister.
Al-Obeidi also said that the names of the wanted people are with the security forces and at checkpoints.
After the capture of Mosul by Islamic State militants in early June, the former Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki accused the Kurdistan Region of providing a safe haven for a number of people he called “terrorists”.
Since the attacks on some of the Sunni tribe leaders in the last two years in northern Iraq by Iraqi army, some of those Sunni leaders has fled their homes and now lives in Kurdistan region.
And this action by Kurdistan region has angered Iraqi government.
I suppose I should explain a bit that his demand seems to infer Iraqi Sunni whom members of the Shia led government assess to be terrorist. Not the few ISIS who have been captured, but people such as Leader of the Sunni Tribes of Anbar Province Ali Hatam al-Suleiman, who fled to avoid arrest
Some didn’t have a chance to flee. The Shiite oppression didn’t create ISIS, but it certainly did a share in helping recruitment.
The Iraqi regime will crumble, whether the Iranian mullahs really want to risk invading Iraq probably depends on how screwed up things get.
Thanks Trapper6012!
It’s almost as if the predominantly Sunni city of Baghdad, which is currently under threat from ISIS, is of no concern to the “government” of Iraq.
I agree with you completely on the Iraq government crumbling. There is nothing I have seen in the Abadi government that is far enough departure from Maliki to win over the Sunni tribes en mass. Perhaps some will. Further, Iraq’s budgets are pegged on a 90 USD per barrel. The barrel price is now 80 something. Which means they have revenue problem. As well, the oil production is off 25% because of areas under ISIS. This spells a huge potential for failure. Much of the 2015 budget will need to go into military spending... If they last that long
It better be. they can mortar the airport quite effectively from Abu Graib. Cut off the airport, you have a real siege, save the route south, which is not that secure. About half of the 8 or 9 million residents of Baghdad are Sunni
Yeah, the cratering of the oil price is a good thing in the short term, for the rest of the Earth, but all the OPEC countries are basically dictatorships (Venezuela included) or some other form of despotate, and rely on patronage and largesse to hold the polity together. Only the Gulf States have enough pumping capacity per capita to raise money on volume to make up for the drop in profits.
That said, the next few weeks will see some startling transformations, and it will get worse, then stay that way for at least a couple of years. When the smoke clears, if the US regime handles it right, there won’t be an Iranian nuclear bomb, and there will be a Kurdish nation seated in the UN.
ISIS doesn’t have the physical numbers to occupy Baghdad, nor do I think they’d want to do anything but bypass it, concentrating on their dash to the Gulf. OTOH, if there’s support in Baghdad, it would make a nice buffer and anchor. ISIS found Kobane too costly to hold, but is starting another attack, they have a sophistication to their movements. Kobani was a bad gamble for them, they took serious losses, not least of which was their air of invincibility.
The reduced oil prices and Saudi as a lead of OPEC choosing to maintain production levels, seems to assume they can eventually ride out the shale oil producers in the US. They might, but it will hurt them and all of OPEC and of course Russia big time. The problems with all this or should say concern, is that these adjustments can turn out ok over the long haul OR can lead to conflict. I am uncomfortable with Russia becoming to miserable and think it dangerous.
back to Iraq, in the scheme of things this Minister of defense does not worry me, nor do I think he will make the Sunni citizen feel much better about the government. Who really bothers me is the Minister of Interior:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/19/world/middleeast/after-delay-iraq-appoints-two-to-posts-for-security.html?_r=0
For interior minister, a coveted post overseeing the nation’s police forces, the lawmakers approved Mohammed Salem al-Ghabban, a member of the Badr Organization, a Shiite political group that controls a militia fighting alongside government forces against the Islamic State.
The Badr Organization had been pressing Mr. Abadi to name one of its members to reflect the party’s strong showing in the recent parliamentary elections.
Mr. Abadi had been reluctant to pick a Badr candidate because he feared that appointing someone closely associated with a militia would jeopardize his plan for a more inclusive administration. The Badr Organization’s armed wing has been accused of torturing and killing Sunnis, especially during the sectarian violence of the mid-2000s.
Mr. Abadi had won praise from Sunnis for resisting the candidacy of the Badr Organization’s chief, Hadi al-Ameri. Badr officials, however, reportedly threatened to withdraw from the government if one of their members was not nominated for the post.
Mr. Ghabban, a longtime activist against Saddam Hussein, was detained in 1979 and later lived in exile in Iran. His candidacy was opposed by some Sunni lawmakers who said Mr. Ghabban was simply a proxy for Mr. Ameri.
In choosing nominees for his cabinet, Mr. Abadi has been somewhat constrained by Iraq’s sectarian power-sharing arrangements, which reserve the Interior Ministry for a Shiite and the Defense Ministry for a Sunni.
That would bring Iran one country closer to Israel. I can’t see the US pouring in troops to defend Iraq in the face of an Iranian Invasion.
There is not much beyond what they have already that is still a Sunni region. I think and have heard they have embedded sleepers in Baghdad. Kind of obvious with the rash of prominent bombings there. generally the Tigris river divides the Sunni to the west and the Shia on the east bank. I do think ISIS would like to get into Baghdad. It would be a hell of a recruitment on the media for them. There are a number of Sunni tribes and some Sunni militias aligned with ISIS. I doubt it will remain so, but just using them to gain ground on the Shia. They may be more welcome than we would like to think in Western Sunni districts of Baghdad.
Iran has plenty of trouble inside its own borders, and it’s all the time. Iran is also not just Iranian — like all its neighbors it’s cut into ethnic groups. And everyone is more and more heavily armed. The upshot is, they probably couldn’t survive an invasion, even if they had the money to buy what they need (and they don’t, the oil price has dropped 20 percent during 2014) and could obtain the materiel despite sanctions (they probably can’t).
Interesting, it was the Badr militia that got in that fight with the Peshmerga near Kirkuk.
The Saudis didn’t start pumping 24/7 except as a last resort. The last time they pulled this, it was while Saddam was occupying Kuwait, and the lower price of crude helped finance the US’ war spending to get him out. They never do it gladly, as it causes their budget to go underwater.
Russia miserable and dangerous? What else is new? But don’t worry, the EU will run to the rescue. Russia supplies 42 percent of the EU’s petroleum, and the EU wants Russia to behave itself (more accurately, the EU wants Putin to behave himself; that will happen when the Russian forensic guys will be scraping what’s left of him off the roof of what’s left of his car).
Turkish destabilization will happen fast, and soon, IMV; the spillage into the EU from that mess will lead to some good things and some bad things. Iran’s grip on Lebanon and Syria will be loosened.
Whatever ISIS was before, it will become bigger, and soon — but so will the battlefield, and the financing is already shrinking. When there is no more booty in the form of weapons, military vehicles, and ammo, they’ll be reduced to fighting mano a mano with the many other jihadist and other armed groups. Destruction of the Arab states remains the longstanding goal of Iran. Their loss of their ally Morsi in Egypt turned their plans into the ditch, but they are spread across northern Africa, into Arabia, and have ties both in Central Asia and Latin America.
The Shitte see this as an opportunity to rid themselves of Kurds, failing to understand the existential threat of ISIS.
I disagree. There are Kurds who are Shia. Their is an economic exchange between Iran and the Kurdish region. As well a Iranian general was recently photographed with the Peshmerga. There are a number of Iranian companies operating in Erbil and over in Sulimaniah. When I lived in Erbil for year we had some regular Barbecue parties. Occasionally a friend would bring an Iranian guest over. It was interesting and motley group of cultures, US, South African, Armenian, Iraqi, Kurdish, Ethiopian, British, Swedish,Turkish,Philippine and Iranian. The Whiskey was Scottish.. And the beer was Dutch
I stand corrected.
The Iraqi Shiites do as Iran says, and Iran doesn’t want anyone to lift a finger to help the Kurds.
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