Iraqi Prime Minister Calls on Muslim World to Unite in Fight Against ISIS
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ABC News/Yahoo! News(BAGHDAD) — Iraq’s prime minister says his country needs “much, much more support” than it is receiving from international partners, issuing a call specifically to other Muslim nations, in the fight against ISIS.
“We need ammunition. We need armaments. We need training. And we need more air cover,” Haider al-Abadi, who replaced Nouri al-Maliki as prime minister in September, told ABC News/Yahoo! News during a sit-down interview in Baghdad.
“I’m calling on the Islamic world to rise up to this,” he said. “It is more dangerous to the Islamic world than the rest of the world. They’re trying to damage our own religion. They try to take our own belief from us. They’re trying to destroy what we have believed in for centuries.”
One Muslim nation has already heeded Iraq’s call for help in great measure: Iran.
Iran is playing a leading advisory role in Iraq’s largest military operation yet against ISIS: a mission to retake the city of Tikrit, which fell under ISIS control last summer.
“Well, Iran is a neighbor,” al-Abadi explained. “And Iran feels itself under threat. So I think they are helping in in a lot of ways.”
Iraq did not request U.S. assistance in carrying out the mission.
The prime minister specified that Iran’s support in the Tikrit operation has been limited to an advisory role and that he refused air and drone support.
“We don’t have a single Iranian soldier fighting on our own soil,” he said. “The maximum number we have of Iranian advisers is not more than 50 or 60.”
Gen. Qasem Soleimani, who leads Iran’s clandestine military Quds Force, is among the Iranian advisers. But al-Abadi sought to downplay Soleimani’s role.
“He comes and goes. He is not residing here,” al-Abadi said. “He doesn’t stay in Iraq for a very long time. And it’s only advisers. If you compare them to U.S. and other coalition advisers and trainers, we have 2,800 advisers in Iraq.”
Iran’s involvement in Iraq has raised the eyebrows of some key U.S. allies in the region.
Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister, Saud al-Faisal, recently said “Iran is taking over Iraq.” Al-Abadi rebutted the claim and challenged Saudi Arabia to become more involved in Iraq’s fight against ISIS.
“I hope Saudi Arabia can match this support,” al-Abadi said. “I welcome the Saudis to match the same support. We want arms. We want ammunition. We want advisers.”
Going forward, al-Abadi said, the Iraqi military has plans so retake Iraq’s second-largest city, Mosul, from ISIS control. It’s a goal the prime minister said could be achieved as early as this summer.
“We have to liberate it,” he said.
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