Covid-19 pandemic obliges, it is by videoconference that Iraq and the United States launched, Thursday, June 11, "Strategic dialogue". After months of belligerent face-to-face interaction between US forces and Shiite militias close to Iran, which have severely tested the relationship between Baghdad and Washington, these talks were eagerly awaited to restore confidence.
Qualified as "Productive" by David Schenker, the US Assistant Secretary of State for the Near East, this first meeting had limited expectations. It will take months for the two sides to define a new modus operandi, with central issues such as the reduction of American troops, the limitation of Iranian influence or economic support for Iraq.
"The success is to have started a dialogue, where all the questions are put on the table, in place of the arms deals that had brought Iraq and the United States near the breaking point", analyzes Abbas Kadhim, expert within the American Atlantic Council think tank. Washington accused the Iraqi government of its wait-and-see attitude to the harassment of its bases and diplomatic representations by the Shiite militias pro-Iranian, with nearly thirty rocket attacks since October 2019. Baghdad denounced an attack on its sovereignty after the strike of American drone which killed Iranian general Ghassem Soleimani and his lieutenant in Iraq in January.
The Iraqi Parliament’s consecutive vote on a non-binding resolution calling for the departure of foreign troops made it necessary to at least reassess the mission of the American troops, redeployed in 2014 to fight against the Islamic State (IS) organization. The displayed objective is broader. It is a matter of renegotiating the strategic partnership sealed in 2008, which framed the American withdrawal from Iraq in 2011, and of setting a framework for expanded cooperation in the security, political, economic and cultural fields.
"No frontal opposition"
The dialogue opened in a peaceful atmosphere. The arrival at the head of the government, in May, of Mustafa Al-Kadhimi, the former chief of intelligence, close to the United States and the Arab countries of the region, changed the situation. Members of his entourage make up the Iraqi delegation led by the Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs, Abdul Karim Hashim, in front of the delegation of the Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs, David Hale. "The problem in Baghdad is to build a national consensus on the purpose of this dialogue, while the political class is divided between fierce opponents of the Americans, strong partners, and moderate voices", said Abbas Kadhim.
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