Kadhimi and the Quds Force commander: Ambiguous relationship between Iraq and Iran

Nora Bandari

After Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi took over the Iraqi government in May, a new Iraqi trend regarding Iran has been noticed, completely different from previous years in which the mullah regime largely dominated Iraq’s decision-making circles. Day after day, Kadhimi proves this new trend, which is already bothering the mullahs.

Iranian messages

Before the Iraqi prime minister visited Washington on August 19-21, Iraqi political sources announced to the media that a “secret visit” was made to Iraq by the commander of the Iranian Quds Force, Esmail Qaani, on August 16, during which he met with Kadhimi. The media reported that Qaani presented several Iranian messages to the Iraqi prime minister, and the sources pointed out that the meeting took place in Baghdad’s Green Zone in “complete secrecy” and dealt with Kadhimi’s visit to Washington and Qaani’s demand for the need to withdraw US forces from Iraq since their presence worries and threatens Iran.

A number of political analysts indicated that the aim behind the Iranian Quds Force commander to Iraq at this particular time was an attempt by Iran to spoil Kadhimi’s visit to Washington and to inform him of the mullahs’ messages, as Tehran did earlier when it sent Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif to Iraq a day before Kadhimi was scheduled to visit Saudi Arabia on July 20, which was then canceled the day before due to Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz’s admission to the hospital.

In addition, the deputy head of the Foreign Relations Committee in the Iraqi Parliament, Dhafer al-Ani, announced on his Twitter account that the Iranian regime is seeking to “dwarf Iraq” in the eyes of the international community and turn it into a mere postman for Quds Force messages. He stressed that Iraq is not obliged to carry the messages that Qaani brought to deliver to US President Donald Trump, saying that this visit belongs to the prime minister of Iraq and that Baghdad’s interests are more important than the interests of any other country.

Iraqi denial

These statements prompted Kadhimi to deny all this, stressing that he did not carry any Iranan messages to Trump during his visit to Washington and that Iraq would not play the role of mediator between Iran and the United States. He said that he would “not be a postman” during his visit to Washington, according to Iraqi media on August 18.

The Iraqi prime minister had previously confirmed in an interview with AP that his country needs the support and cooperation of the United States in order to confront the terrorist threat posed by ISIS. This means that Kadhimi has come to realize that Iraq must confront all Iranian interference in the country, which has caused insecurity and instability in Iraq in recent years.

US demands

Firas Elias, an Iraqi political expert specializing in Iranian affairs, told the Reference that Washington realizes it needs to obtain broad commitments from Kadhimi, especially obligations related to the safety of US military forces in Iraq, and to secure US interests from any future threats that might emanate from Iran and its allies in Iraq.

Elias pointed out that the United States is seeking to pressure Baghdad to find an alternative to Iran for the energy resources it needs. Iraq continues to import oil from Iran, which has reduced the effectiveness of the US sanctions imposed on Iran, which Tehran has exploited. Therefore, the Trump administration is looking at Iraq in terms of how to confront Iran in the Middle East.