New York Times: While Mr. Obama has ordered unmanned surveillance flights over Iraq to gather intelligence for possible strikes on militant positions, the official said, the White House’s emphasis, when Mr. Obama returns to Washington on Monday from a weekend in Southern California, will be on prodding Iraq’s leaders to form a new national unity government.
Obama pushes Iraqis to mend sectarian rifts
Iraq army tries to roll back Sunni militants’ advance
Bloomberg: Iraq’s military pummeled the positions of Sunni Muslim insurgents who have captured large chunks of territory north of Baghdad, trying to turn back battlefield advances that threaten to split apart the country. “The security situation is improving” and government forces are conducting pre-emptive operations in Baghdad”, military spokesman Qassim Ata said.
The pain of the World Cup for a former Iranian player
Seattle Times: Thirty-six years ago, as a young Iranian with big dreams, I had the honor of playing as halfback on the first Iranian national soccer team to qualify for the World Cup Finals.I traveled to Argentina in 1978 with irrepressible pride — as both a representative of Iran, and as a sportsman, whose hard work and training finally took me to the biggest stage in the world.
Iraq air force strikes positions as Obama sends warship
Bloomberg: Iraqi military helicopters attacked positions held by Sunni Muslim militants north of Baghdad as the U.S. moved an aircraft carrier into the Persian Gulf for possible air strikes to support the Shiite-led government. More than 130 members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps have entered the eastern province of Diyala.
5 Principles for Iraq
New York Times: It was Iran that armed its Iraqi Shiite allies with the specially shaped bombs that killed and wounded many American soldiers. Iran wanted us out. It was Iran that pressured Maliki into not signing an agreement with the U.S. to give our troops legal cover to stay in Iraq. Iran wanted to be the regional hegemon.
Loss of Mosul threatens Iraqi PM’s hold on power
AP: Iraqis say al-Maliki has allowed large-scale corruption to continue and failed to significantly improve their lives despite vast oil revenues. Another complaint, often repeated by Sunnis, is that the prime minister has aligned Iraq too closely with Iran, a mostly Shiite, non-Arab nation that is at odds with the Sunni-ruled, oil-rich Gulf Arab states.
Beleaguered Iraqis court Iranian mastermind of the Shiites who fought the U.S.
New York Times: Qassim Suleimani, the shadowy commander of Iran’s paramilitary Quds Force, flew to Iraq this week with dozens of his officers to advise the country’s beleaguered leadership about how to blunt the advance of militant forces on Baghdad, American officials said Friday. Suleimani is also the current architect of Iranian military support in Syria for President Bashar al-Assad.
U.S. says talks with Iran focused on nuclear security, not Iraq
Reuters: The United States is not in talks with Iran about the current insurgency facing Iraq and is instead focused on resolving issues over Iran’s nuclear program, the State Department said on Friday. “We are not talking to the Iranians about Iraq,” spokeswoman Marie Harf told reporters in a briefing.
Obama weighs U.S. action in Iraq but rules out combat troops
Reuters: President Barack Obama said on Friday he needs several days to determine how the United States will help Iraq deal with a militant insurgency, but he ruled out sending U.S. troops back into combat and said any intervention would be contingent on Iraqi leaders becoming more involved.
Conference announces the formation of EIFA in Brussels
Stevenson: The monopoly of power in Maliki’s hands in the past 8 years and the unprecedented infiltration of Iran and its terrorist Qods Force in Iraq has been the main cause of the problems. Maliki misleadingly pretends that the terrorists and ISIS have taken control of Nineveh province in order to pave the way for bombings and missile attacks as well as to find an excuse for the U.S. and the Iranian regime’s military intervention in Iraq.
