Iran has offered to supply Iraq with heavy military equipment and armament, including artillery and armored vehicles. A sensitive proposal, considering the current US assistance to the Iraqi government and army.

The Sabalan is one of the recent Iranian-made main battle tanks (Picture source: IRNA)

The offer was made by Iranian assistant defense minister Hujjatullah Qurishi after a memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed to boost the military cooperation between the two countries, according to a press statement issued on Sunday 18 February by the Iraqi Ministry of Defense.

The two sides have agreed on forming a special committee to review the Iranian proposal and choose the needed armament and equipment. An important Iranian military delegation is currently visiting Baghdad to discuss on the ways of developing the cooperation between the Iraqi army.

Following the advance of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) into northern Iraq in mid-2014, Iran began to provide military aid to counter the militant advance. Iran provided technical advisers to the Iraqi government and weapons to the Kurdish peshmerga. Since mid-June 2014, Iranian combat troops are in Iraq, which Iran denies. In June or July 2014 Iran started an air war against ISIL.

The Iraqi Shia militias Kata’ib Hezbollah (“Hezbollah Brigades”) and Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq (“League of the Righteous”), supposedly funded by Iran, fought alongside the Iraqi army and Kurdish peshmerga in retaking territory from ISIL.

So, military relations between Iraq and Iran had reached new highs in the past few years. Iranian military consultants were deployed in Iraq to help national army in the war against the so-called Islamic State (IS) group. Not sure, though, the US government appreciates this trend, considering both its own global assistance to Iraq and its difficult relation with Iran.