The internal political crisis in Iraq is the result of its occupation in 2003 by the United States and Great Britain. Washington is first reducing and then increasing (and vice versa) its military presence in Iraq, which is divided into three contradicting parts: Sunnis, Shi’as and Kurds. Heads of diplomatic missions are changing in Baghdad, but the essence of US diplomacy is not changing.
Main goals of US diplomacy in Iraq
The 2003 military operation ‘Iraqi Freedom’ was aimed at overthrowing the regime of Saddam Hussein, which had escaped from the influence of the United States, in order to establish control over the oil resources of the country and subordinate the new puppet regime to its interests.
At first, US troops stayed in Iraq from 2003 to 2011 with the mission of overthrowing the regime of S. Hussein and countering local guerrillas, but in 2014 they returned to the country again, this time with slogans of fighting international terrorism and ISIS*.
Assessing the subsequent US policy towards the partition of the Iraqi state, it should be acknowledged that Washington is actively exploiting the Kurdish issue to initiate new projects to reformat the map of the Middle East. The Anglo-Saxons (USA and Great Britain) and Israel are betting on the Barzani clan in Erbil that aims to form a new ethnic entity in oil-rich Kirkuk and Mosul. The United States supports the detonation of the separatist movement through the Kurdish issue in Iraq, Syria, Turkey and Iran.
To this end, in September 2017, the United States ensured a referendum in Iraqi Kurdistan, followed by the formation of an autonomy centred in Erbil. With the beginning of the civil conflict in neighbouring Syria, Washington began to unite the political and military structures of Rojava (Syrian Kurdistan) through Erbil to provide them with financial and military support. Given the geographical continuity of Syrian and Iraqi Kurdistan along the eastern bank of the Euphrates River, the United States plans to hold a referendum in Rojava in August 2024, on the formation of a local autonomy and the subsequent separatisation of the Syrian Arab Republic (SAR).
The next key ethno-religious theme of the interference by the US and its partners in the international coalition in the affairs of Iraq is the local Shi’a community, which causes the US a lot of trouble and security problems. Washington sees Iraqi Shi’as a proxy force of neighbouring Iran, which are supplied with weapons under the coordination of the IRGC and periodically carry out subversive actions against the US diplomatic mission and military bases.
One of the main targets of the CIA’s active intelligence operations in Iraq was the head of the IRGC’s Al-Quds special forces, Lieutenant General Qasem Soleimani. Thus, on January 3, 2020, the CIA organised the assassination of the legendary Iranian general who oversaw the combat activities of the Iraqi Shi’as and Lebanese Hezbollah.
The US sees Iran as the key opponent of its plans in the Middle East. Accordingly, the US is trying in every possible way to undermine the peaceful coexistence of Iraq and Iran to weaken Tehran.
Mission of US Ambassador to Iraq Alina Romanowski is concluding
The State Department implements the foreign policy vector of the current US administration, which is formed in the depths of the National Security Council and the CIA. Accordingly, the heads of diplomatic missions are the bearers of this policy. The personnel practice of the State Department regarding the tenure of ambassadors in Iraq varies from 2 to 3 years.
From 2022 to 2024, the US Embassy in Baghdad was headed by the infamous Alina Romanowski, who was characterised by her impulsive nature and imposed US views on the Iraqi government regarding internal and external enemies. With the outbreak of the Israeli-Palestinian war in October, 2023, US diplomatic missions and military bases in Iraq became targets of new military actions by pro-Iranian Shi’a groups. Accordingly, the leader of a large Shi’a bloc, Muqtada as-Sadr, and the Hash as-Sha’bi movement (Popular Mobilisation Forces) are a problem for the US in Iraq. The US links their combat activities to the IRGC.
The US Ambassador to Baghdad, Alina Romanowski, periodically focuses the attention of the Iraqi government on the fight against IS* and Shi’a proxy forces. Together with the British Ambassador to Iraq Stephen Hitchen, in January 2024, Alina Romanowski met with Masoud and Nechirwan Barzani in Erbil, where she incited Kurdish leaders to act against Iran and the IRGC’s retaliatory actions (the missile strikes destroyed the head of the local Mossad station in response to the Israeli terrorist action at the grave of Qasem Soleimani).
At the same time, during negotiations with Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein and Prime Minister Mohammed As-Sudani, Romanowski steadily imposed on Baghdad the US position of strengthening its own military representation and intensifying bilateral security cooperation to combat international terrorism in the face of IS* and the IRGC.
Romanowski’s time in Iraq is coming to an end, but the US course towards the subsequent weakening of the Iraqi state continues.
What will change under the new US Ambassador to Iraq, Tracey Ann Jacobson?
The media is already circulating information about the imminent appointment of Tracey Ann Jacobson, an experienced diplomat who previously headed the US diplomatic missions in Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Kosovo, to the post of US ambassador to Iraq. Meanwhile, before even having reached Baghdad, in her speech before the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, ambassador candidate Jacobson stated that “Iran’s allies are the main threat to Iraq”.
This is nothing more than an attempt to interfere in the internal affairs of a sovereign state and aggravate Iraqi-Iranian relations through unjustified insults against Tehran. In response the Iraqi Prime Minister’s Security Advisor Khalid al-Yaqoubi noted that “the candidate must be aware of the obvious fact that some of what she said is incompatible with the tasks of her new job and that her expected mission is determined by clear international agreements and treaties”.
Thus, the US State Department is still trying to force upon Iraq its view of regional security, in which Iran is depicted as an enemy and the main destabilising factor in the Middle East.
Meanwhile, the unexpected success of the candidate from the reformist bloc, Mejlis deputy Masoud Pezeshkian, in the early presidential elections in Iran, which came as a surprise to experts to a certain degree, creates the possibility of new transformations in the region (we will discuss this in subsequent publications).
In the meantime, Mrs Jacobson does not differ much from Romanowski, as the State Department retains the old ‘divide-and-rule diplomacy’. In turn, reformist Pezeshkian shocked the US with his statement of unconditional support for Hezbollah in Lebanon and his intention to sign a 20-year strategic partnership agreement with Russia.
*ISIL (IS) – terrorist organisation, banned in Russia
Alexander SVARANTS – Doctor of Political Sciences, Professor, exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”
