Defense Minister Obeidi:

Iran Helping Iraq Liberate Mosul

Date: 30 July 2016 - 21:07

News ID: ۲۹۳۸۹

Iran has helped Iraq in critical times
Military ties between Iranian and Iraqi forces strong
Iranian advisors in Iraq at the request of Baghdad government
A greater war possible if Turkey doesn’t pull out troops
Iraq would have definitely fallen without Iran’s support
TEHRAN (Dispatches) -- The Iraqi defense minister has hailed Iran’s "continuous support” for Iraq in its war against the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group, saying the Islamic Republic has helped its neighbor in critical times.
"There is a great military cooperation between Iran’s Defense Ministry and its Iraqi counterpart, and as part of this military cooperation, Iran supports Iraq’s Defense Ministry and Iraqi security forces, directly or indirectly, in the liberation of Mosul,” said Khalid al-Obeidi told Press TV in an exclusive interview aired on Saturday.
The Iraqi minister went on to say that Iran has supported its neighbor in numerous occasions in its fight against terrorism and continues to do so, insisting that the Iranian military engineers and advisers are providing support and advice in full coordination with the Iraqi army.
He added that the Iranian advisers are present in the country with the consent of the Iraqi government.
Obeidi, however, said only Iraqi forces would participate in the liberation of Mosul, the capital city of the northern province of Nineveh, which fell to the hands of Daesh in June 2014, and the Iraqi government would not allow any foreign country to intervene in the operation.
Iraqi army troops, backed by fighters from allied Popular Mobilization Units, are seeking to win back militant-held regions in joint operations. They have managed to dislodge the militants from several areas in major offensives over the past few months.
Back in February, the Iraqi minister said that the country would launch a decisive battle to retake Mosul by the year-end.
Elsewhere in his remarks, Obeidi criticized Turkey for sending its troops to Iraq, warning of a war greater than the one against Daesh if Turkey do not draw its forces from northern Iraq.
"The presence of Turkish troops in Bashiqa obstructs the observations to liberate Nineveh. This is a fact. When Prime Minister (Haider al-Abadi) warned of a war greater than the war on Daesh, he made his statements based on information he had,” he further said.
"If Turkish troops intervene, then the city of Mosul and the province of Nineveh will become an arena for regional conflicts and this is what the premier predicts. Therefore, I second his opinions,” Obeidi added.
In early December 2015, Turkey deployed a contingent of its troops to the Bashiqa military camp north of Mosul, claiming that the move had been earlier coordinated with Iraqi officials. Baghdad swiftly denied the claim and called on Ankara to immediately withdraw its forces from the camp.
Iraq’s ambassador to Tehran also said Iran’s contribution to Baghdad’s fight against terrorism has crucially helped the Arab country preserve its territorial integrity and sovereignty.
"Had the Popular Mobilization forces and the Iraqi army and the Islamic Republic’s support not existed, Iraq would have fallen by now,” Rajeh Saber Abboud al-Mousavi said in an interview with IRNA.
Iran has been providing advisory military support to Iraq’s battle against Daesh, which has been ravaging the country since June 2014.
"When Iran helped and Tikrit was liberated, the city was left to its residents, and there were no ethnically-charged aspects (to the Islamic Republic’s support),” the ambassador said.
He was referring to the March 2015 liberation of Tikrit — the birthplace of Iraq’s former dictator Saddam Hussein and a hotbed of Daesh activity prior to the liberation.
"Iran’s presence in Iraq has entirely been based on the Iraqi government’s demand and is of an advisory nature,” Mousavi said.
He said Iraq and Iran have "strategic relations.”
"The countries form each other’s strategic depths and are both after stability and calm in the region,” he said, adding, "Should Iraq fall, so will every country in the region, and there will be chaos in all those countries.”
Mousavi further censured foreign intervention in Iraq in the name of fighting terrorism. "Leave us. You cannot be our leaders. The era of colonialism has ended and countries want to take their respective state affairs into their own hands.”
In his interview, the Iraqi ambassador to Iran also censured Western support for the terrorist anti-Iran Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO), some of whose members are based at a former U.S. camp in Iraq.
"When the Iraqi people rose up against Saddam’s regime, they (the MKO members) helped him annihilate these people and they killed hundreds of thousands of people under the pretext that they had rioted against the establishment.”
The MKO widely supported Saddam in his brutal crackdown on opponents. The terror group also sided with Saddam during his 1980-1988 war on Iran. Iraqi leaders have long asked MKO remnants to leave the Arab country but a complete eviction of the terrorists has been hampered by US and European support for the group.