LONDON: A former American envoy has warned Shi’ite leaders in Iraq that they risk losing US backing for supporting Iran.
The warning from Zalmay Khalizad, former US ambassador to Baghdad, came when he met Iraq’s Al Hekma Movement leader Ammar Al Hakim at a forum in London recently, reports our sister paper Akbar Al Khaleej.
A photograph of the two of them sitting next to each other at the forum has also gone viral on social media in Iraq.
It was taken on the sidelines of the opening session of the Peace and Security Forum, which was organised by the American University in the city of Dohuk. Khalilzad and Al Hakim were speaking in fluent Persian, according to the report.
Al Hakim seemed to show signs of astonishment as he listened to the former American envoy, it said.
According to a Kurdish politician who attended the forum, Khalilzad reminded Al Hakim that the Americans had pledged to the Shi’ite leaders, including his father, Abdul Aziz Al Hakim, during a London conference of the Iraqi opposition to hand them over the rule of Iraq after toppling Saddam Hussein.
Khalilzad reportedly said that those leaders who attended the London conference were not loyal to those who appointed them as rulers over the richest and most important country in the Middle East.
“You started targeting our embassy and our forces that came to protect you after it made you as rulers,” he reportely said addressing Ammar Al Hakim.
Al Hakim replied that those who carry out these actions are extremist parties, adding that they are trying to limit their actions.
Khalilzad interrupted him, saying: “But your parliament voted to expel American forces from Iraq”.
“We left Afghanistan willingly, although Afghan President Ashraf Ghani wanted us to remain, but we preferred to withdraw and hand the rule to the Taliban.”
“On the contrary, instead of thanking us for overthrowing Saddam and handing over the rule of Iraq to you, you targeted us.”
Addressing a message to the Shi’ite leaders through Al Hakim, Khalilzad reportedly said: “We will no longer hand over the rule of Iraq to a party that bites us, but rather we will hand it over to a party that deals with us with loyalty and will not be ungrateful like Shi’ite politicians throughout the years that followed the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime.”
“Well, Mr Al Hakim, according to our point of view, you are part of the leadership of the Shi’ite rule in this country.
“You say that you are not with extremism. Well, Mr Al Hakim, tell them that the Americans will withdraw completely, and that they are able to hand over the rule to those who do not bite the hand that has done them well. This is what will happen.”
According to the Kurdish sources, Ammar Al Hakim understood the message of the American envoy as a direct, strict and severe threat against the Shi’ite political class that control Iraq, gives its allegiance to Iran and stands with it in targeting the US forces and sovereign Amercian facilities in Iraq.
According to observers in Baghdad, the US envoy expressed the US administration’s vision of what is happening in the Iraqi arena. They also believe that Washington’s decision to remove the ruling political class is likely, even close and very possible.