READOUT: VP BIDEN'S MEETING WITH IRAQI KURDISTAN PRESIDENT BARZANI

FROM:  THE WHITE HOUSE
May 06, 2015
Readout of Vice President Biden's Meeting with Iraqi Kurdistan Regional President Masoud Barzani

This morning, Vice President Joe Biden hosted Iraqi Kurdistan Regional President Masoud Barzani at the Naval Observatory for breakfast. The Vice President underscored the United States’ strong commitment to working with the global coalition and the Iraqi people to degrade and ultimately destroy ISIL through a comprehensive campaign including military, political, economic, and humanitarian efforts. Vice President Biden and President Barzani discussed ongoing U.S. security assistance to the Kurdish Peshmerga in full coordination with the Government of Iraq. Both leaders agreed on the profound need for close cooperation between the Government of Iraq, the Kurdistan Regional Government, and the global coalition in the ongoing fight against ISIL, particularly with respect to the liberation of Mosul. They also agreed on the need for close coordination between Baghdad and Erbil to advance key elements of the Government of Iraq’s national program.

PRESIDENT OBAMA ASKS SECURITY TEAM FOR OPTIONS ON IRAQ

FROM:  U.S. DEFENSE DEPARTMENT 

Obama Weighs Options for Intervention in Iraq

By Nick Simeone

American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, June 13, 2014 – Citing the “huge investments and sacrifices” Americans have made in Iraq, President Barack Obama said today that he has asked his national security team to prepare a range of options to help Iraqi security forces stop rapidly advancing Sunni insurgents who have overrun much of the country’s north, control most of Anbar province and are now threatening the capital, Baghdad.

“I’ll be reviewing those options in the days ahead,” Obama said in a statement delivered on the south lawn of the White House, but he stressed “we will not be sending U.S. troops back into combat in Iraq.”

Obama said assistance for Iraq’s security forces is necessary because of the “significant gains” Sunni fighters from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria have made in the past several days, taking over the country’s second-largest city, Mosul, and continuing to push southward toward the Iraqi capital while overrunning Tikrit and several other towns and threatening several of Iraq’s Shiite shrines.

“Iraqi security forces have proven unable to defend a number of cities, which has allowed the terrorists to overrun a part of Iraq’s territory, and this poses a danger to Iraq and its people,” the president said. “And given the nature of these terrorists, it could pose a threat, eventually to American interests as well.”
Obama indicated that any decision on U.S. assistance to Iraq is still at least several days away, would be made in close consultation with Congress, and would have to include Iraq’s leaders working to resolve the sectarian differences that he said underlie the current situation.

“The United States is not simply going to involve itself in a military action in the absence of a political plan by the Iraqis that gives us some assurance that they’re prepared to work together,” he said. The government led by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and the Iraqi military are largely Shiite, while the insurgents are primarily Sunni.

With diplomatic efforts set to intensify, Obama said, it will take several days “to make sure that we’ve gathered all the intelligence that’s necessary so that if, in fact, I do direct an order [or] any actions there, that they’re targeted, they’re precise, and they’re going to have an effect.”

Even so, two and a half years after the last U.S. combat troops left Iraq, Obama made clear the United States, after having made “enormous sacrifices” in Iraq, including the deaths of more than 4,000 Americans, is “not going to be dragged back into a situation in which, while we’re there, we’re keeping a lid on things.”
The president also said that despite the billions of dollars the United States spent to train Iraq’s security forces during the eight-year war, the current collapse of the Iraqi army in the face of the Sunni insurgency indicates Iraq’s military continues to have deep-rooted problems.

“The fact that they are not willing to stand and fight and defend their posts against admittedly hardened terrorists, but not terrorists who are overwhelming in numbers, indicates that there’s a problem with morale,” he said. “There’s a problem in terms of commitment, and ultimately, that’s rooted in the political problems that have plagued the country for a very long time.”

The United States already has supplied Iraq with military equipment and intelligence. After meetings with his national security council yesterday, Obama decided the United States needed to take action to help, but he said that “ultimately, it’s up to the Iraqis as a sovereign nation to solve their problems.”

DOD OFFICIALS SAID TO BE CLOSELY WATCHING EVENTS IN IRAQ

FROM:  U.S. DEFENSE DEPARTMENT 

U.S. Officials Watching Events in Iraq Closely

By Jim Garamone

American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, June 12, 2014 – As Sunni militants advance on the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, Pentagon officials say they are watching events in the country closely and will continue to help Iraqi security forces build their defensive capacity.
Reports from Iraq say jihadists aligned with the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria -- ISIS – have captured Mosul, the country’s second-largest city as well as Tikrit, and are moving south towards Baghdad. Reports from Mosul say thousands of Iraqi soldiers threw down their arms and fled.

“Our focus continues to be on helping Iraq,” Pentagon Press Secretary Navy Rear Adm. John Kirby said on CNN this morning. “We have been doing a lot since the American troops left Iraq. The focus is a continued, sustained effort helping them with the counterterrorism operations.”

In particular, the United States will continue to supply weapons to Iraq and to train Iraqi special operations forces in neighboring Jordan, said Army Col. Steve Warren, a Pentagon spokesman.

The United States is providing Iraq with about $15 billion in military equipment under the foreign military sales program.

“Recently, we have sent them 300 Hellfire missiles, millions of rounds of small arms, thousands of rounds of tank ammunition. Scan Eagle surveillance platforms are on schedule for delivery later in the year,” Warren said. “We’ve also recently notified Congress of an additional sale of $1 billion, which includes 200 Humvees.”

Under the strategic framework agreement that Iraq signed with the United States, the American military has expanded its training programs, including a second round of counterterrorism training for Iraqi special operators.

These weapons transfers will continue, Warren said. The United States takes security of advanced systems particularly seriously, and any transfer takes the security of these systems under consideration.

DOD officials speaking on background pointed out that many of the photos ISIS is posting of captured U.S. equipment are actually old U.S. photos pulled from the web. One photo shows a “captured” UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter. The United States has never supplied a Black Hawk to Iraq, officials said.

In another case, a photo purporting to be a captured surface-to-air missile vehicle was actually taken by a U.S. Air Force staff sergeant in 2003. It shows Russian equipment.

All U.S. combat troops left Iraq in 2011.