The Syria disconnect in US Iraq policy
Iraq welcomes Syrian airstrikes on ISIS; Aleppo’s water crisis.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki this week said he "welcomed" Syrian airstrikes on the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) forces on the Iraq-Syria border.
Iraq’s ambassador to the United States, Lukman Faily, told Al-Monitor on June 26, "Any air supremacy support provided to Iraq will surely have a significant effect. That to us is a key game changer."
Faily, who described Iraq’s war against ISIS as an "acid test" for US-Iraq relations, said, “We have had offers from the Syrians before and we declined them. But it seems that the support that we sought from the US is not coming in a timely manner to deal with our urgency, which is more or less putting us in an uncomfortable position in seeking support from whoever is available on the ground.”
The Barack Obama administration deepened its engagement in Iraq but has so far held off sending military support for Iraq beyond 300 US military advisers and conducting drone reconnaissance.
