WASHINGTON, October 24 (RIA Novosti) - Rebuilding relations with Sunni tribes who partnered with the United States during the 2003-2012 Iraq war will be one of the most serious problems in the regional fight against the Islamic State (IS) militant group, former US ambassador to Iraq Jim Jeffrey said.
"It's a huge problem," Jeffrey told RIA Novosti Friday. "It's most serious because there's a lot more tribal members with guns than there is ISIS [the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria]. But it's a question of mobilizing them and being out there with them, and convincing them that you're going to stay."
During the 2007 surge in Iraq, the US military relied heavily on Sunni tribal leaders in the fight against the insurgency. The military and intelligence capabilities developed with these groups during the surge were critical to the success of putting down the insurgency, according to military experts involved in the mission. However, when the US withdrew, the groups were subject to the largely sectarian rule of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
"They felt we left," Jeffrey continued. "And they don't like the government in Baghdad. They think it's too dominated by the Shia and the Kurds."
When asked whether it would be difficult to rebuild a coalition including the Sunni tribes, Jeffrey noted that "we didn't succeed in staying with them before, so that's the mess we've got now."
Jeffrey also said that the issues of rebuilding those tribal relationships are both military and diplomatic.
