Moscow says it will consider extending airstrikes in Syria to Iraq if Baghdad requests its help
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said Thursday that he “would welcome” Russian airstrikes in his country after Moscow said it was willing to carry out attacks.
“It’s a possibility, if we get the offer we’ll consider it,” Abadi told France 24 television. “In actual fact, I would welcome it.”
He cautioned against fighting both among factions in Iraq and in the world, urging a unified front against the Islamic State radical jihadist group.
“I think there’s a lot of political bickering at the moment, which may make things worse, but if we can direct our resources toward fighting [the Islamic State], that will be a good day for Iraq, Syria, for the region,” he said.
Abadi added that airstrikes had not yet been discussed between the two countries, although he had been receiving “massive information” from both Syria and Russia about the Islamic State.
Baghdad said earlier this week that it had been sharing intelligence with Russia, Syria and Iran for some time, the Washington Post reported.
Russia is ready to consider expanding its new military campaign beyond Syria to launch airstrikes in Iraq if Baghdad asks it to do so, Moscow said on Thursday.
“If we get such a request from the Iraqi government or a Security Council resolution that depends decisively on the will of the Iraqgovernment,” Moscow would consider launching the strikes, senior Roreign Ministry official Ilya Rogachev told the RIA Novosti state news agency.
However, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov later appeared to contradict Rogachev, saying that Russia is not planning to expand its air campaign to neighboring Iraq, and that there had been no request from Baghdad to do so.
“We were not invited, we were not asked, and we are polite people, as you know. We don’t come if not invited,” Lavrov said Thursday during a news conference at the UN General Assembly.
Iraqi politicians expressed fear that accepting help from Russia could draw Baghdad into tensions between the US and Russia.
“We are concerned Iraq might become a battleground for this struggle,” said Ammar Toma, a Shiite lawmaker, according to the Washington Post. “But we cannot refuse one of them. If my house is burning, I take all the help I can get.”
Meanwhile, some Sunni lawmakers expressed wariness about involvement Syria
“Cooperating with Bashar Assad is terrorism itself,” said Hamid al-Mutlaq, a Sunni member of parliament.
Russia on Wednesday carried out its first airstrikes in Syria.
Amid claims that Russia was targeting opposition groups fighting Syrian government forces, Moscow initially insisted that it was targeting Islamic State militants.
Lavrov insisted Thursday that Russia saw “eye to eye” with the US and that it was targeting other terrorist groups in addition to the Islamic State.
“We have the same approach: it’s ISIL, Al-Nusra and other terrorist groups,” he said using an acronym for the Islamic State group.
Asked whether it was true that the United States and Russia were on the same page, US Secretary of State John Kerry said: “Well, in concept, but we are not yet where we need to be.”
Kerry, who met Lavrov at the United Nations on Wednesday, said US and Russian officials were still engaged in talks “to guarantee safety and security and division of responsibility.”
On Thursday, Moscow renewed attacks, claiming it had destroyed 12 Islamic State targets.
However, US-backed rebel groups said Russia hit their bases, and data released by the Carter Center showed that the strikes had targeted rebel-held territory, not the Islamic State.
As reported by The Times of Israel