Iran Announces it Will Assist Post U.S. Iraq
Just a week after United States forces pulled out of Iraq, Iran has announced it is prepared to expand military and security assistance with its neighboring country, according to a top Iranian military official.
"The Islamic Republic of Iran is ready to establish, boost and expand all types of military, defense and security cooperation with the friendly and brotherly nation of Iraq," said Hassan Firouzabadi, Iran's armed forces chief of staff, according to Sunday report by semi-official Fars News Agency.
Firouzabadi’s announcement comes on the heels of Iran’s Navy staging war drills in the region. The drills, which began on Saturday, are the largest ever orchestrated by the Shia-led theocracy and are being held in an area that extends from the eastern part of the Strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Aden, according to a report by Fars.
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Zohreh Elahian, a member of parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, said the war maneuvers are a warning for the west, Fars reported on Monday.
"These war games are a warning to the western countries about the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. If any threat is posed to Iran, the Islamic Republic is capable of closing the Strait of Hormuz."
The Strait of Hormuz is a narrow shipping channel critical for oil tankers carrying Middle East oil. The straight leads in and out of the Persian Gulf between Oman and Iran.
Analysts say U.S. troops withdrawal from Iraq gives Tehran more freedom to exercise influence on Iraq.
"It will not have negative effects against Iran," James Gelvin, a history professor at UCLA, said about the U.S. pullout, according to CNN.
The last U.S. convoy left Iraq earlier this month, ending a nearly nine-year long war that removed long-time Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.
Iraq is still facing a fragile government and sectarian violence following the withdrawal of the United States.
According to the CNN, some analysts feel it’s too soon to determine the future of the Iraq-Iran relationship.
"I would say it's too soon to tell because the Iraqi people and the Iraqi government are only beginning to write the next chapter in their nation's history, and they have a complicated relationship with their neighbor Iran, and that's not always been a positive relationship," said Mike Breen, vice president of the progressive Truman National Security Project in Washington.
Between 1980 and 1988, a military conflict between the two nations ended with close to 1.5 million people dead. In 1988, Iran accepted a U.N.-mandated cease-fire.
Iran and the now Shia Muslim-led Iraq have improved their ties in recent years following the execution of former Sunni Muslim leader Saddam Hussein.
