Unreasonable Iranian demands lead to failure of Kadhimi’s visit to Tehran

Iraqi political sources revealed that, during his visit to Tehran, Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi turned down two explicit requests made by Iranian leader Ali Khamenei.

The sources said that Kadhimi’s visit was engulfed in tensions, especially his meeting with Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

Khamenei’s first request was to have Iraq’s electricity dues to Iran settled in US dollars, desperately needed by Iran, through Chinese banks. Kadhimi, however, insisted on paying in Iraqi or Iranian currencies to avoid clashing with the US sanctions.

Sources said that Khamenei’s second request was for Kadhimi to meet with Brigadier General Ismail Qaani, new commander of the Quds Force in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. Again, the Iraqi prime minister flatly turned down this request.

The same sources qualified Kadhimi’s visit to Tehran as a complete failure, and attributed this to Kadhimi’s inability to meet the Iranian demands, foremost of which was forming a common front against the United States.

They added the unreasonable Iranian demands were reflected in the Iranian Supreme Guide’s tweets on his official account during Kadhimi’s presence in Tehran.

“Iran will not forget America’s crime of assassinating General Soleimani and Abu Mahdi Al-Muhandis, and it will inevitably deal a reciprocal blow to the Americans,” Khamenei threatened in his tweet.

Addressing the Iraqi Prime Minister in the same tweet, he said: “They killed your guest in your home and admitted this crime openly, and this is not a simple matter.” Khamenei wrote those statements while Kadhimi was Tehran’s guest.

“America is an enemy in the true sense of the word,” Khamenei went on, “and it will never accept a strong and independent Iraq with a majority-backed government. The Americans could care less about who is prime minister in Iraq. Rather, they are seeking to form a government similar to the government of the US Administrator in Iraq, Paul Bremer, at the beginnings of the period following Saddam’s fall.”

Observers believe that Iran may have actually begun responding to Kadhimi’s rejection of Iranian requests, by pulling the strings of a number of its proxies inside Iraq to confuse the government.

There are increasing indications that Iran has given the green-light to these proxies to escalate the situation on the security front in order to confuse Kadhimi’s government and sanction him for not being responsive during his recent visit to Tehran.

Two days after Kadhimi’s visit, Iraqi security services monitored two actions that reveal a qualitative shift in Iran’s escalation against the United States in Iraq. The first one was a roadside attack on a US army supplies convoy in southern Iraq, and the second was an attempt to launch an explosives-laden drone towards the American Embassy in Baghdad.

Security sources said that Iraqi intelligence services arrested a man who was filming the explosion of roadside bombs against a military convoy transporting equipment for American forces, on the road between Basra and Nasiriyah in the south.

The sources confirmed that this individual came from Baghdad to participate in this mission, which had resulted in the burning of two trucks carrying special equipment for the American army. However, the sources did not provide information about the side responsible for the bombing or its motives.

Iraqi media affiliated with Iran devoted much attention to the details of the operation, which suggests the involvement of the armed militias in it.

In the second operation, the Iraqi security authorities confiscated a drone in the Jadiriya neighbourhood, adjacent to the Green Zone in central Baghdad where government buildings and the American and British embassies are located. The drone was booby trapped with explosives.

Here too, the security forces did not disclose any details about the party involved in this plot, but the presence of the drone in an area considered a major stronghold for the militias loyal to Iran says a lot about it.

Pro-Iranian militias in Iraq do not usually change the pattern of their activities against American interests in Iraq. Therefore, their resorting to new methods in the events cited indicates the onset of an escalation phase that differs from its predecessors.

The Iraqi government, however, seems to be ready this time around. Iraqi authorities announced that the security forces had arrested one of the individuals who were involved in the attack on the US convoy in the south of the country, and that he has been handed over to the competent authorities which will do their duty whether Iran likes it or not.

Regardless of these two developments, observers say that Tehran will not take an incalculable risk against American forces in Iraq as this might push US President Donald Trump to take a broad response.

It is expected that this summer is going to be hot in more than one way in Baghdad. Minor clashes here and there may lead to a major explosion in the events, pending the outcome of the US presidential elections.

Observers say that, in the current circumstances, Iran may steer as far away as possible from testing Trump’s patience, as the American president is facing a worrisome decline in popularity which might cost him his second term in the White House.