Iraq Wants to Purchase Russian S-400s

Date: 19 April 2020 - 21:28

News ID: ۷۷۶۳۰

BAGHDAD (Dispatches) – The Iraqi Parliament’s Security and Defense Committee has submitted a detailed study requesting the purchase of Russian long-range, surface-to-air S-400 missile defense systems for the consideration of the country’s caretaker prime minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi.
"The issue has already been discussed with relevant figures at the General Command of Armed Forces, and now awaits the prime minister’s agreement,” committee member Badr al-Ziyadi was quoted as saying by the Arabic-language newspaper al-Sabaah.
The parliamentarian underscored the country’s need to enhance its defense capabilities and explained that the acquisition of the S-400 missile system could be finalized after ratification of the deal by the new government that succeeds the current caretaker one.
Ziyadi said his parliamentary committee "will support the next Iraqi government’s decisions in this regard, and will present relevant proposals and pieces of advice to it”
"The approval to acquire such a sophisticated system requires large financial allocations and a political decision in order to diversify the sources to get the weapons as we cannot just rely on the Western camp, but rather need to incline towards the Eastern camp as well,” said Ziyadi.
In a number of previous instances, the Iraqi lawmaker had gone on record as voicing concerns over attempts to pressure Baghdad to forgo signing arms contracts with other states.
Thus, last month the Iraqi lawmaker had revealed that the U.S. and the Zionist regime’s arms companies were urging his government to refrain from negotiating the purchase of sophisticated military equipment with other countries.
"There are companies and traders pushing to prevent Iraq from concluding contracts to purchase weapons from developed countries,” he was cited by the Arabic-language al-Maalomah news agency as saying on 18 March.
Earlier, on 20 January, Badr al-Ziyadi said Baghdad, in a bid to boost its security from any possible aggression, was mulling dispatching delegations to a number of countries to negotiate the procurement of advanced air defense missile systems.
"The delegations intend to visit countries like Russia, China and Ukraine to negotiate the purchase of modern systems to protect Iraq’s airspace… The Iraqi parliament is right now forming a joint executive and legislative delegation to visit developed countries and sign contracts on procuring advanced weapons,” al-Sabaah daily quoted the official as saying.