The State Department on Tuesday declined to criticize the Iraqi central government for partnering with Iran in a fight against an ethnic minority seeking to separate from the rest of the country.
“We’re not taking sides,” State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert told reporters on Tuesday.
The neutral U.S. stance is controversial because the Kurdish Iraqis who are seeking independence from Baghdad have been critical partners in the fight against the Islamic State. With ISIS largely ousted from Iraq, the Kurds held a controversial referendum to form their own country. That vote, opposed by the State Department, created an opportunity for Iranian officials to coordinate with Iraq to prevent the Kurds from breaking away.
“We continue to call for calm,” Nauert said.
Other U.S. foreign policy leaders maintain that the Trump administration isn’t doing enough to prevent Iran from gaining influence in Iraq. Iranian Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani was reportedly an adviser in an operation to take control of Kirkuk, a major city in northern Iraq that the Kurds liberated from ISIS.
“We cannot forget the Iranian regime provides cash, weapons, training, and military orders to Shia militias that are right now near Kirkuk and only nominally take orders from the civilian government in Baghdad,” Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said Tuesday. “Iran would like nothing more than to see infighting in Iraq, and it’s clear that no good comes from the involvement of these Shia militias, whose loyalties lie to Iran, not Iraq.”
Nauert downplayed the action in Kirkuk, calling it a “coordinated” operation because “the Kurds were aware of the movements as they were taking place.” She added that Tillerson is making a series of calls to diplomats in the region in an effort to defuse the situation.
“Our US forces have fought alongside, have died alongside, those from the south, those from the north — all Iraqis,” she said. “We see it as a federal, democratic, unified Iraq.”
