A common threat in Iraq

THAT America and Iran have some common interests in Iraq but only up to a point became evident when the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff pointed out the difficulties involved in the way. In a radio interview, Gen Martine E. Dempsey said the two sides had potentially the same goals but that Iranian policy in Iraq was not going to be completely aligned with us. The issue for both is the rise of Sunni extremism, as represented by the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham, which on Sunday changed its name to the Islamic State. Led by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the Islamic State has larger aims. Its rapid military advance and the capture of Mosul, the second biggest city, have demoralised the one million strong Iraqi army and unnerved the government headed by Nouri al-Maliki. His forces are already there in Syria, and the Islamic State statement, proclaiming a caliphate, said the latter would extend from Diyala in eastern Iraq to the Syrian province of Aleppo and would soon include the entire Muslim world. This constitutes a challenge to the Fertile Crescents existing borders formed after the First World War and consequently poses a threat to all regional states. More significantly, Sundays declaration dislodges Ayman al-Zawahiri from his position as chief of all jihadist movements. The Al Qaeda chief did not get along well with Baghdadi whose extremism was apparently more than what even Zawahiri could stomach.

In this anarchic situation, when Baghdadis forces are in control of large swathes of Iraqi territory and are knocking on the door of the Iraqi capital, it is but natural for all forces against religious extremism to get together, the first priority being to help the Maliki government fight back. Another important player in the region, Saudi Arabia, looks at Baghdadis forces with suspicion and has pledged not to let a handful of terrorists … terrify Muslims. This way a commonality of interests exists among Washington, Riyadh and Tehran, and there is no reason why they should not coordinate policies that serve their common interests. It would, of course, be naive to believe that the three parties, especially America and Iran, could sink all their differences, given their diametrically opposite view of Israel. Yet there is no reason why they cannot work out a modus vivendi for the limited but geopolitically important purpose of preserving Iraqs territorial unity.

—Dawn

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