Iraq, siding with Iran, sends essential aid to Syria’s Assad

Joby Warrick

The Washington Post

October 8, 2011 ET

More than six months af­ter the start of the Syr­ian upris­ing, Iraq is offering key moral and financial support to the country's embat­tled pres­ident, un­der­mining a central U.S. pol­icy objective and rais­ing fresh concerns that Iraq is drifting fur­ther into the orbit of an American arch rival — Iran.
Iraq's stance has dealt an embarrass­ing setback to the Obama admin­istration, which has sought to enlist Muslim allies in its campaign to isolate Syr­ian auto­crat Bashar al-As­sad. While oth­er Arab states have downgraded ties with As­sad, Iraq has moved in the oppo­site di­rection, host­ing of­ficial vis­its by Syr­ians, signing pacts to expand busi­ness ties and offering po­lit­ical support.

Af­ter Iraq sent conflicting signals about its support for As­sad last month, Iraqi Prime Min­is­ter Nouri al-Maliki spoke firmly against regime change in Syr­ia in an inter­view broadcast on Iraqi televi­sion Sept. 30. "We be­lieve that Syr­ia will be able to overcome its cri­sis through reforms," Maliki said, rejecting U.S. calls for the Syr­ian lead­er to step down. His words echoed those of Irani­an Pres­ident               

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who weeks earli­er proposed that Syr­ians should "imple­ment the nec­essary reforms by them­selves."

On oth­er issues as well, the Maliki govern­ment in re­cent months has hewed clos­er to Iran's stance — Iraq, for example, has support­ed Iran's right to nucle­ar technology and advocated U.N. member­ship for Pales­tini­ans — as the U.S. military races to complete its troop with­draw­al over the com­ing months.
Few pol­icy objectives are more important to Iran than preserving the pro-Tehran regime in Syr­ia, longtime Mid­dle East observers say.
"This is Iran's influ­ence, because preserving the As­sad regime is very much in Iran's national inter­est," said David Pollock, a for­mer advis­er on Mid­dle East pol­icy for the State De­part­ment dur­ing the George W. Bush                         

admin­istration. "Iran needs Iraq's help trying to save their ally in Dam­ascus."

U.S. of­ficials acknowl­edged disap­point­ment with Iraq over its dealings with As­sad, while noting that oth­er Mid­dle East countries also have been re­luc­tant to abandon As­sad at a time when the out­come of the upris­ing re­mains un­certain.
"The Iraqis should be more helpful, absolutely," said a se­nior admin­istration of­ficial in­volved in Mid­dle East diplomacy.
Some of the proposed financial deals with Syr­ia, howev­er, "turn out to be a lot of talk," said the of­ficial, who spoke on the con­dition of anonymity to can­didly discuss sensitive issues.
U.S. intelligence of­ficials pre­dict that Syr­ia's upris­ing will eventually topple As­sad, most