Baghdad/ Berlin: While German foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier warned on Sunday that the bloody conflict in Iraq could quickly spin into a regional “proxy war”, former spokesperson for the US defence department J.D. Gordon said that the renewed violence is actually a “proxy war between Saudi Arabia and the Iranians which is now spilled over into Iraq and there will be a lot more violence in the months, years to come.”
“The Islamist radicals are being funded by the Saudis, Gulf states. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki did not include the Sunnis in the power-sharing agreement like he should have, so there a lot of Sunnis who are upset,” Mr Gordon was quoted as saying by Fox News.
The German foreign minister called on Turkey, the Gulf Arab states and Iran to do their part to stabilise Iraq.
“We have to prevent a proxy war of the regional powers breaking out on Iraqi soil,” he said.
Mr Steinmeier said that these countries “could not have an interest in, beyond Syria, an enormous, ungoverned space developing in their backyards as a hotbed of mercenary groups, Islamists of every stripe, and terrorists”.
According to a report by foreignpolicy.com the battle of Iraq is a Saudi war on Iran which is really a war between Shias and Sunnis for control of the West Asia. The report said that such a setback for Iraqi PM Nouri al-Maliki has been the dream of Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah for years.
While there are fears and claims that the crisis may lead to or actually is a result of “proxy wars” in the region, there are also reports of arch-rivals becoming friends and friends becoming foes due to the developments in Iraq.
While long-time enemies US and Iran have shown the common willingness to support Mr al-Maliki’s government, the Gulf kingdoms, who are longstanding allies of the US, are not happy with Obama administration backing the Shia majority government, reported the New York Times.
Similarly, the Turks, who had a cordial relation with Iraqi Kurds till now, are wary of Kurdish gains in Iraq, for fear that it will prompt a flare-up of Kurdish separatism in Turkey.
The Kurds also are deeply suspicious of Turkish intervention in Iraq. Moreover, Kurds and the Maliki, who were at odds over boundaries, oil revenue and the Kurds’ goal of independence and also had sectarian differences, share an interest in preventing a Sunni militant takeover of either Iraq or Syria.
There are also reports that the ISIL has been funded for years by wealthy donors in Kuwait, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia, three U.S. allies that have dual agendas in the war on terror.
Syria’s 3-year-old civil war had long since devolved into a battle between a mainly Sunni armed opposition and the Shiite-linked government of Syrian President Bashar Assad. With the spillover of the conflict into the Iraqi heartland, that proxy battle expands onto the doorsteps of patrons on opposite sides of the Sunni-Shiite divide: Saudi Arabia and Iran, respectively.
The rapid erosion of central authority in Iraq could force the hands of important players across a greatly expanded sphere as they struggle to protect their own interests, analysts say.
Watch: Al Qaeda militants massacring captured Iraqi soldiers Tikrit, Iraq
