America Pressures Baghdad To Disarm Pro-Tehran Militias, but New Leader’s Persuasive Powers May Be Lacking

Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi of Iraq, praised by President Trump as “young and handsome,” is under American financial pressure to disarm Iranian-backed militias. It might prove an uphill battle. Shortly after assuming office at Baghdad in mid-June, Mr. Zaidi traveled to Washington, where Mr. Trump said on July 14 that he had “tremendous chemistry” with the Iraqi guest. Mr. Zaidi’s trip also included meetings with America’s top oil executives. The Iraqi leader then headed to Tehran, where his hosts frowned on his American ties, as did opponents at Baghdad upon the premier’s return home.Like some of Mr. Zaidi’s predecessors, the inexperienced Baghdad leaders now finds himself “between the American hammer and the Iranian anvil,” an Iraq watcher at Tel Aviv University, Ronen Zeidl, tells The New York Sun.Washington is attempting to force the politically inexperienced Mr. Zaidi to choose sides: Start the process of disarming the top eight armed militias in Iraq — or else. The militias are becoming Iran’s top go-to proxies since Israel degraded Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza. Syria is no longer an Iran satrap. The Houthis are in America’s crosshairs. Iraqi militia drones hit Saudi targets last week in coordination with the Houthis. Israel too was recently struck from Iraq. Some Israelis warn of Iraqi militias infiltrating Jordan to attack Israel from there. Syria also fears invasion of Iranian-backed Iraqi militias. Some 2,500 American troops that are stationed in Iraq are scheduled to leave the country by September 30. As part of the withdrawal, Patriot batteries are already drawing down at Kurdistan’s Erbil, home to the world’s largest U.S. consulate. In lieu of military power, America is using financial pressure points to influence policy at cash-starved Baghdad. While at Washington two weeks ago, officials told Mr. Zaidi that an Iraqi fund worth $30 billion, frozen since the war on Saddam Hussain, could be released, according to the Baghdad-based Shafaq News. To unfreeze the cash, though, the Iraqi government will need to show “progress toward bringing all weapons under state control,” the website reports. Since the onset of the Iraq war, all proceeds from Iraqi oil sales go into an account at the Federal Reserve of New York. America then flies the funds in cash to Baghdad. In recent months America halted those flights in an attempt to unseat Mr. Zaidi’s pro-Iranian predecessor, Mohammed Shia al-Sudani. After his Washington visit Mr. Zaidi expressed hope the flights would resume. They weren’t. America conditions all cash transfers on Baghdad efforts to disarm the militias. Last week American and Saudi jets struck bases of the Popular Mobilization Forces, a group of militias that are officially under Baghdad’s control, but in reality answer to Tehran. The strikes followed drone attacks from Iraq and Yemen on American bases in Saudi Arabia and the kingdom’s oil installations. “The militia that acted in coordination with the Houthis is Iraqi Hezbollah,” Tel Aviv University’s Ronen Zeidl, says. “These Iran-backed proxies, the Houthis and the Iraqi Shiites, have their local interests,” he adds, but the IRGC is financing and arming them, “and the Iranians, let’s say, didn’t quite stop them” from striking Saudi targets. Hence the need for Baghdad to start acting against Iraqi militias working hand-in-hand with the Islamic Republic. Some Iraq watchers, though, are skeptical that Washington can put enough pressure on Baghdad to start confronting the militias. Even if Mr. Zaidi is sincere in his promise to disarm the Shiite groups, “Then what?” an Iraqi-born, Washington-based activist, Entifadh Qanbar, asks. “What are the benchmarks? What are the measures for the United States for disarming the militias?” These groups have, and will again, issue statements they have disarmed, he tells the Sun, “and then some group will appear with a new name, a new brand” and once again hit targets in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere.Mr. Qanbar also doubts that American financial incentives can be effective in combatting the militias. Washington policymakers “think that they can empower Zaidi, because Iraq is bankrupt now,” he says. Yet, he adds, money from abroad doesn’t go to the Iraqi treasury but to various nongovernment interests, including Iran-backed militias and even to Hezbollah in Lebanon. For decades and through various administrations, America tried to instill in the Mideast the principle of “one government, one gun,” meaning a unified command structure. Mr. Zaidi might be even less effective than other Mideast leaders to control the various armies that have metastasized in his country.

America Pressures Baghdad To Disarm Pro-Tehran Militias, but New Leader’s Persuasive Powers May Be Lacking

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