Iraqi authorities have started to turn to Russia as the country’s major partner in the fight against the Islamic State following highly unsatisfying outcomes of the US-led alliance’s actions in the region, according to Foreign Affairs.
Secondly, the country’s Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi claimed that he would countenance the idea of launching air strikes by Russian military in Iraq.
And at last, Grand Ayatollah of Iraq Ali al-Sistani, called on Iraq to broaden anti-ISIL international coalition, hinting he would look for Russia’s involvement on the issue.
An unnamed source at Iraqi ministry of foreign affairs said in an interview to Foreign Affairs that Americans set forth too many conditions in an exchange for weapons. The defense minister of Iraq went even further– during his visit to Moscow in the beginning of the year when he said that “Russian weapons have proved themselves as the very best.”
Ibrahim Bahr al-Ulum, a member of Iraqi Parliament said in an interview to the New York Times that Russia is considered to be a greater power in Iraq than the US among ordinary citizens:
“What the people on the street care about is how to get Daesh [Arabian translation of ISIL] out of Iraq.”
Recalling the US operation to oust Saddam Hussein in 2003, Iraqis bewilder why the process of defeating ISIL is unfolding so “inexplicably slow.”
Ahmed Naji, a professor at Kufa University, expressed his mutual opinion on Iraq in an interview to the New York Times:
“The Americans have the technology to spot water on Mars. So why can’t they defeat ISIS [ISIL]?”
