Russia boosts ties with Iraq in challenge to US influence

BAGHDAD — Russia is ready to sell civil airliners to Iraq and keep providing it with military aid to fight Daesh, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said on Thursday, accompanied on a trip to Baghdad by the biggest Russian delegation in years.

The mission by nearly 100 government and business officials was part of a drive by Moscow to strengthen commercial and security ties with Iraq, potentially eroding US influence in one of the world's most critical regions.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim Al Jaafari said discussions had revolved around providing military assistance to defeat Daesh militants, who seized a third of Iraq in 2014 and want to redraw the map of the Middle East.

"We need international support from multiple sources, be it from within the international coalition or outside of it," he said, referring to the US-led coalition which has launched thousands of air strikes and provided training and advice to Iraq's military.

"We need support, training and intelligence sharing," he told reporters. "Intelligence plays an important role in the war on Daesh, and we've been coordinating for a while now with the Russian side to place this information in the hands of Iraqis."

Russia has invested millions of dollars in Iraq's energy sector and last year opened a command centre in Baghdad under an intelligence-sharing agreement with Iraq, Iran and Syria aimed at combating Daesh.

Rogozin said he had met with his country's envoy to the command centre, thought to be a one-star general. He said through a translator that Moscow would continue providing Iraq with military equipment which had helped "raise the combat readiness of the Iraqi armed forces", but provided few details.

He told Russian news agency TASS he hoped military aid would help Iraq retake the northern city of Mosul and other areas held by Daesh.

Frustrated with the pace and depth of the US-led military campaign against the militants, Iraqi officials have said they would lean heavily on Russia in the struggle to defeat the Sunni Muslim jihadists. The command centre has shared intelligence for air strikes in Iraq and neighbouring Syria.

Four months of Russian air strikes in Syria have tipped momentum towards President Bashar Assad in that country's five-year-old civil war, undermining US-backed efforts to revive peace talks.

The officials signed a wide-ranging memorandum of understanding that included measures to more than double bilateral trade and boost Iraq's electricity production, which only meets around 60 percent of its peak demand during the hot summer months.

Trade last year was nearly $2 billion, mostly made up of Russian exports, according to TASS. Rogozin said Russia could provide Sukhoi Superjet airliners for Iraq's civil aviation.

He proposed holding the next meeting in Mosul, which Iraq's government has vowed to recapture from Daesh this year.

"Economic cooperation must coincide with settling security matters," said Rogozin. "The faster you liberate this city, the sooner we can get [back] to Iraq."