Iraqi Leader Backs Syria, With a Nudge From Iran
Iraqi Leader Backs Syria, With a Nudge From Iran
By Michael S. Schmidt and Yasir Ghazi
Published: August 12, 2011
BAGHDAD — As leaders in the Arab world and other countries condemn President Bashar al-Assad’s violent crackdown on demonstrators in Syria, Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki of Iraq has struck a far friendlier tone, urging the protesters not to ‘sabotage’ the state and hosting an official Syrian delegation.
Mr. Maliki’s support for Mr. Assad has illustrated how much Iraq’s position in the Middle East has shifted toward an axis led by Iran. And it has also aggravated the fault line between Iraq’s Shiite majority, whose leaders have accepted Mr. Assad’s account that Al Qaeda is behind the uprising, and the Sunni minority, whose leaders have condemned the Syrian crackdown.
President George W. Bush and Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki
‘The unrest in Syria has exacerbated the old sectarian divides in Iraq because the Shiite leaders have grown close to Assad and the Sunnis identify with the people,’ said Joost Hiltermann, the International Crisis Group’s deputy program director for the Middle East.
