{"id":51023,"date":"2020-02-08T08:26:47","date_gmt":"2020-02-08T13:26:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=51023"},"modified":"2020-02-08T08:26:50","modified_gmt":"2020-02-08T13:26:50","slug":"iraq-russia-look-to-boost-military-ties-while-us-threatens-sanctions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=51023","title":{"rendered":"Iraq & Russia Look To Boost Military Ties While US Threatens Sanctions"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Iraq & Russia Look To Boost Military Ties While US Threatens Sanctions<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

In more continuing fallout over the Jan.3 assassination by drone of the IRGC’s Gen. Qassem Soleimani, Iraq and Russia are preparing for deepening military coordination<\/strong>, reports the AP<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Iraq\u2019s Defense Ministry announced Thursday that increased \u201ccooperation and coordination\u201d is being discussed with Moscow amid worsened relations with Washington, which even last month included President Trump issuing brazen threats of “very big” sanctions<\/a> on Baghdad if American troops are kicked out of the country. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This week Iraqi army chief of staff Lt. Gen. Othman Al-Ghanimi and Russian Ambassador Maksim Maksimov met to discuss future military cooperation.\u00a0Crucially,\u00a0Gen.\u00a0Ghanimi highlighted Russia’s successful anti-ISIS operations over the past years<\/strong>, especially in Syria where the Russian military has supported Assad since being invited there in 2015.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Iraqi helicopters file image.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

On Russia’s role in Iraq, Ghanimi said Moscow had provided<\/a> \u201cour armed forces with advanced and effective equipment and weapons that had a major role in resolving many battles,\u201d according to the ministry statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s been long rumored that since late summer Baghdad and Moscow have been in talks to deliver either Russia’s advanced S-400 or S-300 anti-air missile defense systems<\/strong> – a prospect which US officials have condemned. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like other areas of the Middle East, as US adventurism heightens pressure for a US withdrawal, Russia appears to be seizing the opportunity to move in. This much was affirmed in AP’s reporting, via at least one\u00a0anonymous senior official<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A senior Iraqi military intelligence official told The Associated Press that\u00a0Russia, among other countries, has come forward to offer military support in the wake of fraught US.-Iraq relations following Soleimani\u2019s killing<\/strong>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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

Iraq & Russia Look To Boost Military Ties While US Threatens Sanctions In more continuing fallout over the Jan.3 assassination by drone of the IRGC’s Gen. Qassem Soleimani, Iraq and Russia are preparing for deepening military coordination, reports the AP.  Iraq\u2019s Defense Ministry announced Thursday that increased \u201ccooperation and coordination\u201d is being discussed with Moscow amid worsened relations with […]<\/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":[5],"tags":[442,17429,827,4318],"class_list":["post-51023","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-geopolitics","tag-iraq","tag-qassem-soleimani","tag-united-states","tag-zerohedge"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51023","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=51023"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51023\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51024,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51023\/revisions\/51024"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=51023"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=51023"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=51023"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}