Playing into jihadists’ hands

Iraq’s parliament has put in peril the country’s true interests with its demand for the expulsion of all US and coalition troops, including 300 Australians, in response to the assassination of Iranian warlord Qassem Soleimani. By doing so when thousands of Islamic State terrorists are known to be regrouping, Iraqi MPs have failed to learn the grim lesson of Barack Obama’s 2011 decision to prematurely withdraw all US troops, which opened the door to the establishment of the Islamic State caliphate and years of bloody conflict in both Iraq and Syria.

Three years later, faced with the catastrophic prospect of a jihadist takeover in Baghdad, Mr Obama had to rush troops back. The 5000 there now operate alongside coalition forces. They are protection against the widely apprehended revival of Islamic State and play a vital role in supporting Iraqi forces hunting down the terrorists. Without US surveillance, intelligence and air and ground support, Islamic State would be able to operate with impunity. The US troops are essential, too, for Iraq’s ability to counter the actions of Iran’s lethal Shia militia proxies, which have been increasingly deployed by Tehran as part of its drive to assert Iranian Shia hegemony over Iraq and turn it into a satellite state.

Iraqi parliamentarians faced death threats from Kataeb Hezbollah, the militia allied to Soleimani’s notorious Quds Force that stormed the US embassy in Baghdad last week. The MPs were warned to support the anti-US expulsion motion. Overwhelmingly, Shia members did so, but Sunni and Kurdish members who make up half the parliament stayed away. Soleimani’s role in seeking to expand Tehran’s influence and military power across the Middle East meant he was a deadly enemy of an independent Iraq. Yet with anti-American sentiment running high in Iraq following the assassination, serious doubts have emerged about the ongoing viability of US and coalition help against Islamic State. Sam Heller, of the International Crisis Group, has warned that the turn of events may give Islamic State “room to operate and allow it to break out of its marginality”.

According to the Pentagon, US President Donald Trump’s despatch of another 3000 US troops to the Middle East in the aftermath of Soleimani’s death brings the total US troop deployment across the region to 80,000. Iraqi MPs, in their zeal to do Tehran’s bidding, would do well to think again and recognise this deployment as a demonstration of US power and commitment in the region.

As for America’s allies, they should support Mr Trump in showing that the days when Iran could act with impunity are over. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has rightly complained of the muted response of Western allies to the end of Soleimani’s career of bloodshed and destabilisation. It is also time for European realism on Iran’s nuclear program. As signatories to Mr Obama’s flawed nuclear deal, Britain, France and Germany should recognise Tehran’s announcement that it is suspending commitments on the production of enriched uranium as confirmation that the agreement is definitively dead. According to analysts, Iran’s decision means it could be just months away from being able to accumulate enough nuclear fuel for one atomic bomb. What’s required now is unity and resolution in the face of Iran’s aggressive posture.