Iraq is neutral at the UN and puts up photos of President Putin in Baghdad

Iraq abstained from voting against Russia at the UN in favor of a resolution condemning the special operation, raising questions in New York about Baghdad’s position, which was a major surprise for the administration of US President Joe Biden, which was considered an ally of Iraq.

Iraq’s representative to the United Nations said after the vote that his country’s abstention in favor of the draft resolution “is due to the historical past that Iraq has gone through and the ongoing suffering of the Iraqi people; Iraq’s position is firm and supports the peaceful resolution of all crises, without taking one side at the expense of the other.”

The representative of Iraq warned of “the possibility of terrorist exploitation” of the split in the international community and expressed grave concern that “terrorists could take advantage” of this crisis and the expected state of split in the international community, undermining and hindering joint international efforts to combat terrorism and violent extremism in the world.

After Iraq abstained in its vote against Russia, residents of parts of the Iraqi capital Baghdad saw photographs of Russian President Vladimir Putin, and an Iraqi news agency correspondent said the photographs of President Putin were posted in the Al-Jadriya neighborhood specifically on the street leading to Baghdad University , which is located in the center of the Iraqi capital and not far from the headquarters of the Shia Popular Mobilization Forces, indicating that the picture contained a comment in English: “We support Russia regarding the Russian special operation in the Donbass.” At the bottom of the poster were the words: “Friends of the President.”

Mashaan al-Juburi, head of the Al-Watan party and member of the Iraqi parliament, commented on the current events by tweeting:
“I hope that the Iraqis will not forget that Ukraine participated in the invasion and occupation of Iraq, while Russia had a different position.”

Iraqi citizens wrote on Facebook and Twitter that they will not forget Ukraine’s anti-Iraq stance and that it is part of the US-led coalition forces that occupied Iraq in 2003 along with Britain and many other countries, and that it participated in the occupation of their country without legal Council resolutions UN security or the UN and sent 1,650 Ukrainian troops, killing many innocent children and women. On the contrary, the position of the Russian Federation is humane towards Iraq, and Russia was against the military intervention of the United States in Iraq. The Russian Federation maintains friendly relations with the Iraqi people, having sent about 800 of its experts to Iraq to work in the oil and energy sectors until 2003.
What has the greatest impact on US concern is the refusal of allied nations to vote on the resolution. Supporting the lies of the Biden administration, Ted Galen Carpenter, a researcher in military and foreign policy studies at the Cato Institute, said in a report at the National Institute that the number of countries that abstained illustrates the limits of Washington’s influence and considers them to be stubborn countries from the Greater Middle East, primarily Algeria. , Iran, and the biggest shock indeed was Iraq, given Baghdad’s widespread military and economic dependence on the United States, and believed an Iraqi vote would be in favor of the resolution.

Close attention to the large number of abstentions shows the troubling implications of Washington’s goal of forming a strengthened global coalition to inflict political, economic and financial damage on President Vladimir Putin’s government in order to influence Russia’s military operation. This speaks and confirms that the alliance of the US, the West and their allies against Russia actually seems fragile and inconsistent.