Middle East
From left: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Iraqi PM Mohammed Shia' al-Sudani. Photos: AFP and Sudani's office
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken discussed the latest developments in the Middle East over a phone call on Sunday, stressing the need to prevent the war in the Gaza Strip from spreading to other countries.
Sudani emphasized to Blinken that de-escalation in the region depends on stopping the aggression on Gaza, preventing the conflict from expanding to Lebanon, curbing the Israeli government’s actions and “ending their repeated violations of international law and sovereignty,” according to a statement from the prime minister’s office.
Blinken expressed Washington’s desire for Baghdad to play a role in preventing escalation and acknowledged Iraq’s efforts to promote peace in the region, the statement added.
The US-Iraq military relationship and the future of the international coalition against the Islamic State (ISIS) in Iraq were also highlighted during the meeting, according to a State Department statement.
Blinken “underscored U.S. commitment to the Higher Military Commission process to determine how and when the D-ISIS Coalition’s military mission in Iraq will transition and the importance of force protection as we work toward that transition.”
Tensions between Israel and Iran-backed groups in the Middle East have been soaring since last week, especially after the killing of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in the Iranian capital Tehran on Wednesday. Iran has blamed Israel for the attack and vowed to retaliate, but Israel has not claimed responsibility.
Haniyeh’s assassination came a day after the Israeli army announced that it killed Fuad Shukr (also known as Sayyid Mushan), the right hand man of Lebanese Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, and the group’s senior military commander in an airstrike targeting the Lebanese capital of Beirut.
Tensions have been high between Washington and Baghdad since the start of the latest chapter in the Israel-Palestine conflict in October. Pro-Iran Iraqi militias have carried out over 165 attacks on US troops based in Iraq and Syria in condemnation of the American government’s unwavering support for Israel.
The US has responded with several retaliatory strikes, strongly condemned by the Iraqi government.
The attacks have been largely halted since April but several US strikes were reported last week.
The US military struck a base belonging to the Iran-backed and government-linked Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) in Babil province’s Jurf al-Nasr (formerly Jurf al-Sakhr) late Tuesday, “targeting combatants attempting to launch one-way attack uncrewed aerial systems,” according to a US defense official.
At least four fighters were killed in the attack.
In January, Sudani presided over the first meeting of the US-Iraq Higher Military Commission (HMC) to discuss the future of the coalition’s mission in Iraq. Baghdad’s language has been clear that the commission’s aim is to bring an end to the presence of the coalition forces in the country, while Washington has described the step as a “transition” in the coalition’s role.
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