Iraqi Vice President: Iraq Is Assisting Iran In Supplying Weapons To The Syrian Regime

Iraqi Vice President: Iran Supplying Assad Through Ground Convoys -- The Cable/Foreign Policy

For several months, the U.S. government has been urging the Iraqi government to stop Iran from supplying arms to the Syrian regime through commercial flights over Iraqi airspace, but a larger amount of supplies is now crossing Iraq via convoys on the ground, Iraq's exiled Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi told The Cable.

Hashimi has been living in Turkey following his indictment and subsequent conviction in absentia by Iraqi government courts that he says are working with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. The Central Criminal Court of Iraq sentenced him to death last month for allegedly participating in acts of terrorism against his own political opponents,, charges widely seen as political in nature.

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My Comment: There is no love lost between this exiled Iraqi Vice President and Iraq Prime Minister al-Maliki. But his claims back-up recent U.S. claims that Iraq is turning a blind eye to Iranian efforts to re-supply the Syrian military.

Will Syria’s Conflict Spill Over Into Iraq?

Will Syria’s Conflict Spill Over Into War-Weary Iraq? -- Vivienne Walt, Time

As the violence in Syria spirals into an increasingly bloody maelstrom, Iraq's Foreign Minister voices his country's fears that the chaos is spilling across the border—and that Baghdad won't be able to contain it

For months, Syrian opposition groups have smuggled weapons and fighters into the country across the borders of Turkey and Lebanon. Now another of Syria’s influential neighbors—Iraq—says its territory is being used as a base for al-Qaeda attacks against the regime of President Bashar Assad. Speaking to a handful of reporters in Paris on Thursday morning, Iraq’s Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said both U.S. and Iraq believe that Al Qaeda operatives are sneaking into Syria across Iraq’s western border, despite the fact that the U.S. military during the Iraq War turned that remote desert area into the country’s best-secured frontier. “It is very, very difficult to control 680 kilometers of borders,” Zebari said, claiming that Al Qaeda’s infiltration into Syria was now “a fact.” For jihadis, he said, “Syria is a good environment, because of the lack of security, the lack of control of the government.”

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My Comment: For the moment I do not see a spillover effect .... the focus in the Middle East is on the Syrian civil war. But when the conflict is over .... that is when the problems are going to arise, especially if it is a radical Sunni-Islamist government that comes to power in Damascus.

Iraq's Assistance To Syria More Deeper Than What Has Been Disclosed

Iraq Lets Iran Fly Arms To Syria Despite U.S. Protests -- Washington Times

The Iraqi government has refused U.S. requests to stop Iranian cargo flights to Syria, despite being aware of credible intelligence that the planes are transporting up to 30 tons of weapons, according to a U.S. official.

The U.S. has made several requests in recent months to the Iraqi government, including directly to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, to either stop allowing Iran to use its airspace or allow the planes to be inspected in compliance with international law.

Iraq has refused, saying the planes are carrying only humanitarian aid.

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Previous Post: Has Iraq Decided To Aid President Bashar al-Assad's Syrian Regime?

Update #1: Report: Iran sends planeload of 'medical aid' to Syria -- YNet News
Update #2: Iraqi PM insists Iran flights to Syria carrying aid -- NOW Lebanon

My Comment: No one believs that these flights are just carrying "medical supplies". This is a conscious decision on the part of the Iraqi government to assist both Iran and Syria to repress the revolt that is happening right now against the Assad regime.

Iraq Sends Aid To Syria

Iraq, Siding With Iran, Sends Essential Aid To Syria’s Assad -- Washington Post

More than six months after the start of the Syrian uprising, Iraq is offering key moral and financial support to the country’s embattled president, undermining a central U.S. policy objective and raising fresh concerns that Iraq is drifting further into the orbit of an American arch rival — Iran.

Iraq’s stance has dealt an embarrassing setback to the Obama administration, which has sought to enlist Muslim allies in its campaign to isolate Syrian autocrat Bashar al-Assad. While other Arab states have downgraded ties with Assad, Iraq has moved in the opposite direction, hosting official visits by Syrians, signing pacts to expand business ties and offering political support.

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My Comment: This move to assist Assad reveals Iraq's sectarian divide. The Iraqi Shiites are supporting their "fellow" Shiites in Syria, while the Kurds and Sunnis are in total disagreement.