{"id":50598,"date":"2020-01-18T08:52:32","date_gmt":"2020-01-18T13:52:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=50598"},"modified":"2020-01-18T08:52:34","modified_gmt":"2020-01-18T13:52:34","slug":"could-isis-take-control-over-this-large-iraqi-oil-field","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=50598","title":{"rendered":"Could ISIS Take Control Over This Large Iraqi Oil Field?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Could ISIS Take Control Over This Large Iraqi Oil Field?<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\"Iraq<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

As always, it\u2019s the fear of sanctions that provides the leverage Trump seeks in this cat-and-mouse game with Iran. And this time, the leverage is over Iraq, which would like to see both American and Iranian forces out of the country, for obvious reasons.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is nothing ISIS would love more than this. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It would also devastate Iraq because the sanctions threatened would include blocking access to Iraq\u2019s U.S.-based account where all the oil revenues are kept. That threat stands if Iraq moves to kick U.S. forces out of the country. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That would mean victory for Iran (temporarily). Kicking out Iranian forces is not nearly as simple because the line between state and non-state actors is blurred, at best. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A few weeks ago, a U.S. drawdown<\/a> of military forces in Iraq was already expected, but that now seems unlikely because of the implications. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The very military base that Iran attacked following the assassination of General Soleimani was already preparing for a drawdown. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to the threat of sanctions on oil money, a U.S. withdrawal would likely open the door for an ISIS return.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What Iraqis Want<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is no consensus on this question, other than the fact that no one wants Iraq to be the proxy battleground between the United States and Iran. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a fair point, and Iraqis have had a very difficult time enjoying anything close to sovereignty since the fall of Saddam Hussein. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the Iraqi parliament has voted for U.S. troops to leave, they do not represent a unified voice. The Sunni elements of parliament did not participate in the vote. Neither did the Iraqi Kurds. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2026click on the above link to read the rest of the article\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Could ISIS Take Control Over This Large Iraqi Oil Field? As always, it\u2019s the fear of sanctions that provides the leverage Trump seeks in this cat-and-mouse game with Iran. And this time, the leverage is over Iraq, which would like to see both American and Iranian forces out of the country, for obvious reasons.\u00a0 There […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,5],"tags":[442,28829,522,3969,827],"class_list":["post-50598","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-energy-2","category-geopolitics","tag-iraq","tag-iraqi-oil-fields","tag-middle-east","tag-oil-fields","tag-united-states"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50598","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=50598"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50598\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50599,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50598\/revisions\/50599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=50598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=50598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=50598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}