A group of Senate and House Republicans express deep concerns about President Biden’s bilateral talks with Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammad Shia al-Sudani and oppose talks over Iranian influence in Iraq. are doing.
Republican lawmakers also criticized the upcoming meeting, scheduled for April 15, as undermining U.S. support for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel’s war against Iran-backed Hamas.
“Your appeasement efforts toward Iran have endangered America’s national security and weakened our relationships with our allies,” the lawmakers said. wrote in a letter he told Biden late last month.
The letter was led by Sens. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) and Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and was signed by six of their Republican colleagues.
Iraq has become the epicenter of the conflict amid the aftermath of Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel. U.S. forces in the country have come under attack from Iranian-backed militias, some of which are integrated into the Iraqi military, and U.S.-allied Kurdish forces have also been targeted by these groups. It has become.
Iranian-backed groups in Iraq, Syria, and Yemen are also targeting U.S. forces across the region. Three U.S. military personnel stationed in Jordan were killed in the attack. The Pentagon believes the attack was carried out by Kataib Hezbollah, an Iraqi militia backed by Iran.
“Since October 7, 2023, these militias have attacked Americans and Kurdistan more than 180 times, resulting in the deaths of three U.S. military personnel and over 100 casualties,” the lawmakers wrote.
Lawmakers laid out a series of preconditions for the Iraqi prime minister’s visit, focusing on expanding support for Iraq’s Kurdistan region and cutting off funding to Iranian-backed militias in Iraq.
“As a precondition for Prime Minister al-Sudani’s visit, the Iraqi-Turkish pipeline will be developed to ensure that the Kurdistan Region is able to export oil and that U.S. public and private funds are no longer threatened by Tehran’s influence in Iran. “We should demand the immediate reopening of Baghdad,” the lawmakers wrote.
“We also call on the Iraqi government to resume financing to the Kurdistan Region, to immediately sell Kurdistan crude oil already at the port of Ceyhan, and to restart the entire cycle of oil sales and payments to Kurdistan and its oil investors. Finally, no further US dollar transfers to Iraq should be allowed until the Treasury Department certifies that such transfers do not benefit the Iranian regime or its proxies.”
Other signatories of the letter include Sen. Ted Budd (R-Texas), Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-Texas), Rep. Jake Elsey (R-Texas), and Rep. French Hill. (R-Arkansas), Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio) and Mike Walz (R-Fla.).
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