“I am compelled to reiterate our appeal to all sides to exercise maximum restraint. With Iraq cloaked in an already-complicated tapestry of challenges, it is of the greatest importance that all attacks cease,” UNAMI Head Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert said at a UN Security Council session discussing Iraq in New York. “Iraq, and the wider region, remains on a knife edge.”
The US on Friday night launched a major retaliation campaign against the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force (IRGC-QF) and Iran-aligned militias in Iraq and Syria, striking more than 85 targets and killing at least 16 Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) fighters and injuring another 36 in Iraq’s western Anbar province, near the Syrian border.
The US airstrikes were carried out in retaliation for more than 165 rocket and drone attacks on American troops in Iraq, Syria, and Jordan by Iran-aligned militia groups condemning Washington’s support for Israel in its war in the Gaza Strip since mid-October. The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a network of shadow Iraqi militia groups affiliated with the IRGC, has claimed responsibility for most of the attacks. The most recent drone strike, which resulted in three American soldiers being killed, took place at a military base in Jordan late last month.
“Messaging by strikes only serves to heighten tensions, to kill or injure people, and to destroy property,” Hennis-Plasschaert said. “Restraint from Iraq’s neighbors and other countries is just as crucial.”
The UNAMI head commended the Iraqi government for attempting to counter a “domestic and regional spillover” against the backdrop of the Israel-Gaza war, but lamented that continued attacks on the country from outside powers “have become a harsh reality.”
“The enormous risks and potential devastating consequenes of continued escalation cannot be overstated, and this is true for Iraq, the region, and beyond,” she said.
Around 2,500 American troops in Iraq and 900 in Syria are leading an international coalition through Operation Inherent Resolve that has assisted Kurdish, Iraqi, and local Syrian forces in the fight against the Islamic State (ISIS), which once held swathes of land in Iraq and Syria but was declared territorially defeated in 2019.
Baghdad is currently engaged in talks with the US-led coalition against ISIS to wind down the mission and end the presence of foreign troops on Iraqi soil. The talks were instigated by Iraq’s anger over repeated US airstrikes on its territory.
Hennis-Plasschaert commended the talks as a step in the right direction.
“When talking about the incendiary potential of retaliatory strikes, we would like to welcome the recent launch of dialogue through the United States-Iraq Higher Military Commission,” she said. “The setting of joint objectives could only be a positive development amid rising tensions.”
Kurdistan Region's delayed elections
Kurdistan Region's parliamentary elections were initially scheduled for October 2022 but were pushed to November of the following year due to disagreements among the political parties over the election law.
After an Iraqi court ruling against the self-extension of the Kurdistan parliament as a result of the delayed elections, the poll was postponed to February 2024, this time under the supervision of the Iraqi electoral commission which has announced that the Region's leaders should appoint a new date as the vote cannot be held on the schedule date.
"Kurdistan Region: continued postponements of elections do not help already low trust levels, nor do they contribute to Iraq’s stability," Hennis-Plasschaert said.
She has warned against the further delay of the Kurdish elections in her previous speeches to the Council as well.
“To state the obvious: we expect all parties to ensure that this new election date will not again fall victim to internal political strife. With the current administration in a caretaker capacity, the Region’s democratic process must prevail. There is so much at stake,” she told members of the Council in October last year.
Kurdistan Region’s authorities have come under mounting criticism both domestically and internationally, for failing to hold elections on time.
Baghdad-Erbil 'wrangling'
The KRG has said that it needs over 900 billion dinars monthly to cover its payroll, but with its oil exports through Turkey halted since last March, it does not have the funds. In September, Erbil and Baghdad struck a deal that saw the federal government agree to loan the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) 2.1 trillion Iraqi dinars in three 700-billion-dinar instalments, to cover three months of the wages of the civil servants.
Erbil and Baghdad governments have been in talks to amend the federal budget to guarantee the payments to cover the salaries. Baghdad last week sent 618 billion dinars to Erbil to cover its January payroll. The KRG decided to skip the last three months of 2023 when paying the latest salary.
"Baghdad-Erbil wrangling on financial and budgetary issues goes on. It is the people who suffer. Financing for January is welcomed, but a more permanent solution is desperately needed," the UNAMI head said.
