ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Iraq tried to persuade the US not to designate Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO), Iraqi Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi said Tuesday.
“I won’t hide it from you. We tried to stop the American decision,” Abdul-Mahdi told his weekly press briefing in Baghdad on Tuesday night.
“We called all the friends. I spoke with [Jordan’s] King Abdullah. We spoke with the Egyptian leadership, all the friends. We spoke to the American administration. We called and spoke with all these parties.”
“We and the governmental team [said] that such a decision might have negative ramifications for Iraq and the region. [But] they went ahead with their decision,” he added.
The IRGC is a paramilitary organization answering only to the Ayatollah – Iran’s supreme leader. It was formed during Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution and operates independently of the regular armed forces.
Its extraterritorial Quds Force is accused of inventing in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Yemen.
US President Donald Trump announced the designation of the IRGC on Monday, piling further pressure on the Islamic Republic following Washington’s decision to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal in May 2018 and to re-impose sanctions.
The Iranian government followed suit, designating US central command CENTCOM as a terrorist entity for its activities in Western Asia, escalating tensions further.
Baghdad and Tehran share close political, economic, military, and religious ties.
Aware of this deeply enmeshed relationship, Washington granted Iraq a sanctions waiver on the import of Iranian energy – which it has twice extended.
Iraq currently imports more a thousand megawatts of electricity from Iran per year and vast quantities of gas to supplement its national grid, which is prone to daily blackouts.
It is not clear whether similar special dispensations will follow the IRGC terror designation.
“Iraq wants to distance itself from any rivalry. We will continue to make use of our good relations with the two sides and everyone,” Adbul-Mahdi said.
“We have good relations with both, with Americans and with Iranians. And we are going to deploy all our efforts to ease and calm down the situation. It is not in the interest of any of the parties engaged.”
The PM denied Iraq would play the role of the mediator between the two sides, but said it would use its “good will” and good relations to ease tensions.
All sides would be “losers” if things are allowed to escalate, the PM added.
Abdul-Mahdi’s desire to balance Iraq’s relationship might not wash with Washington, however.
In a telephone press briefing on Tuesday night alongside US Special Representative for Iran Brian Hook, US Coordinator for Counterterrorism Nathan Sales said countries continuing to engage with Iran will face the consequences, while those who follow the US will reap the benefits.
“We think countries have a choice to make. They can engage with Iran and take the consequences that follow, or they can engage with the United States and our allies and take the beneficial consequences that follow,” Ambassador Sales said.
Without directly referring to Iraq, Sales said areas where Iran operates in the Middle East are prone to instability, violence, and governments that struggle to represent their people.
“What Iran offers is submission, violence, bloodshed and instability. What the United States offers is sovereignty, prosperity, and the free and open exchange of commerce and people, ideas, et cetera,” Sales added.
Growing US pressure on Tehran has not stopped Iran and Iraq strengthening ties.
During a three-day visit to Iraq in March, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani signed a deal with Abdul-Mahdi lifting visa fees between the two countries and agreed to increase annual trade to $20 billion.
Abdul-Mahdi paid his own visit to Tehran over the weekend, meeting with Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Khamenei reportedly urged Abdul-Mahdi to remove US forces from Iraq.