Trump’s gamble in Middle East backfires
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US ties with Iraq, allies take hit after drone strike
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Meant to cripple Iran’s clout, US strike unites its allies
The US killing of general Qasem Soleimani was meant to cripple Tehran’s clout in the Middle East, but analysts see the allies of Iran closing rank instead.
The deadly US drone strike in Baghdad has also rocked America’s ties with allies on the ground, left diplomats scrambling to contain the fallout and Iraqi officials outraged at the airspace violation.
The strike on the outskirts of Baghdad’s airport early Friday killed Iranian General Qasem Soleimani and top Iraqi commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, among others.
The US has hailed it as a win for “peace and stability” in the region, in contrast to Western diplomats and US military officials in Baghdad. None had received prior warning of the pre-dawn strike and learned of it when they woke up, sending them into crisis talks to salvage ties with Iraqi officials.
“The strike was such a surprise to all of us,” one Western diplomat said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“Speaking to the Americans now is extremely complex. We’re talking a lot together as the European Union but the Americans have their own problems now,” the diplomat said.
Even at the military level, the strike strained ties between the United States and its other partners in the coalition fighting the Islamic State jihadist group.
“As for our Western allies, in the grand scheme of things, it appears we screwed them over,” a top US defence official deployed in Iraq told AFP.
Some 5,200 US soldiers are stationed across Iraqi bases to support local troops preventing a resurgence of IS.
On Sunday, in reaction to the strike, Iraq’s parliament voted in favour of rescinding that invitation and ousting all foreign troops.
As the head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ Quds Force, Soleimani oversaw Tehran’s interventions in regional power struggles from Lebanon and Iraq to Syria and Yemen.
Washington had hoped his killing in a Baghdad drone strike Friday would deal a blow to Iran and its network of proxies -- but the plan appears to have backfired by uniting pro-Iran factions under an “axis of resistance”.
“The strike unified the resistance forces and made combatting the United States a priority,” said Qassem Qassir, a Lebanese expert in Islamic movements.
Indeed, pro-Iran factions in Iraq have seized on the strike to secure a political and popular revival.
The strike gave Shia factions led by Kataeb Hezbollah, Iraqi populist cleric Moqtada Sadr and Qais al-Khazali to unify call againt the US.
Further afield in Lebanon, Iran-backed Hezbollah said the strike represented a threat to “all the movements, leaders and countries of the axis of resistance”.
Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen, meanwhile, called for “direct and swift reprisals” to the strike. Palestinian movement Hamas slammed it as an “American rampage.”
“Soon enough, this decision by (US President) Donald Trump will be seen as counter-productive,” predicted Karim Bitar of the Paris-based Institute for International and Strategic Affairs.
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