Al-Maliki asks for the Thug-In-Chief’s help in reining in the Sunni jihadists. Here we see looming in Iraq the Shi’ite client state of Iran that the U.S. has unwittingly helped put into place with its short-sighted democracy project. As we have noted here many times, that project failed to take into account the realities of Iraq and the realities of Islamic jihad. This is the fruit.
“Iraq Asks Iran to Reign in Militants,” from AP, with thanks to all who sent this in:
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) – Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki made his first official visit to Iran, a close ally, asking the Islamic regime on Tuesday to crack down on al-Qaida militants infiltrating his country and seeking new deals to help Iraq’s troubled oil industry.
The visit reflected the complex relationship between Iran, a mostly Shiite Muslim country, and Iraq’s government, now dominated in the post-Saddam Hussein era by Shiite allies of Tehran. Since Saddam’s fall in 2003, Iraq has sought better relations with Iran and to heal scars left by the 1980-88 war that killed more than 1 million people on both sides.
The two enjoy increasingly strong ties that include new oil cooperation. Iraq has already turned to Iran for help with a chronic shortage of petroleum goods, reaching a deal last month to import Iranian gasoline, kerosene and cooking fuel. Iraqi officials said al-Maliki’s visit and other recent exchanges could improve the cooperation.