Pentagon blows deadline to pry Iraq off US military aid

The Donald Trump administration has missed a congressional target to put Baghdad in charge of paying for US security cooperation amid persistent insecurity and rising Iranian influence.

The administration had planned to have Iraq start paying for the US-funded Office of Security Cooperation-Iraq in October 2017. According to a Pentagon report sent to Congress in March and reviewed by Al-Monitor, however, drawn-out combat operations against the Islamic State (IS) have left Baghdad with “little bandwidth” to help pay for the office out of the Iraqi treasury and US assistance programs.

The office was set up in the US Embassy in Baghdad in 2011, when oversight of US security assistance to Iraq was transferred from the Pentagon to the State Department following the Barack Obama administration’s decision to pull US troops out of the country. It is charged with supporting the Iraqi Ministry of Defense and counterterrorism services along with keeping track of US weapons deliveries. The office has a $42 million budget this fiscal year, down from $70 million in fiscal 2017. Since the office isn’t currently involved in efforts to train and equip Iraq’s military, it can’t legally draw from the $1.3 billion fund that the Defense Department uses for counter-IS operations.

The State and Defense departments are working with Baghdad “to ensure sufficient resources to address ongoing operational and other high-priority requirements,” the report states. “As such, there are insufficient [US funds] and Iraqi national funds available” for training efforts.