Alwaght- Former Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki says the United States supported ISIS Takfiri terrorist group and intentionally it to gain power in the country to pave way for prolonged US military presence.
Maliki, who served as PM between 2006 and 2014, told a local TV station on Sunday that the administration of former US President Barack Obama had played a key role in the creation of ISIS by allowing the terrorist group to overrun Iraqi territories.
According to the former premier, in 2013, the US provided Iraq with intelligence and aerial imagery pinpointing ISIS terrorists who had lined up behind Iraqi borders in Syria in large groups, waiting to cross into Iraq after what they thought was going to be the imminent fall of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Maliki said back then Baghdad had no fighter jets capable of bombing the terrorist positions and the Iraqi combat helicopters did not have the range to orchestrate an attack.
So naturally, Baghdad turned to Washington for help and asked the Obama administration to provide the Iraqi air force with “one or two” fighter jets under the 2008 security agreement between the two sides.
Washington, however, turned down the requests and advised the Iraqi government to ask Jordan for help but that was a no-go as there was no military cooperation agreement between Baghdad and Amman at the time.
Nevertheless, the Iraqi army’s 7th Division was sent to eradicate the terrorists without air support and made some progress before landing in a deadly terrorist siege that killed its commander and nearly dismantled the whole division.
The former Iraqi PM said America’s support for ISIS did not end there as Washington proceeded to stop all supplies of helicopter parts and other military equipment to Iraq and halted a contract to sell Iraq F-16 attack aircraft even though Baghdad had paid for them in advance.
Maliki said he couldn’t still fathom why the Obama administration made those decisions, letting the terrorists get away by refusing to attack their positions.
He agreed with US President Donald Trump’s remarks during the 2016 US presidential campaign that Obama was the “founder” of ISIS by fully evacuating Iraq at the wrong time to let ISIS take over.
“We should never have gotten out the way we got out,” Trump said during a rally in August 2016. “We unleashed terrible fury all over the Middle East."
“Instead of allowing some small forces behind to maybe, just maybe, keep it under control, we pulled it out,” he continued.
Maliki questioned Washington’s decision to extend its military intervention in Iraq, saying apart from some authorized US military trainers and advisers, his government never asked the Pentagon to send in its forces.
According to Maliki, during his time in office, military ties between Iraq and the US were limited to weapons deals, similar to Baghdad’s dealings with Russia, China and a number of other countries.
