Tehran, Iran, Dec. 6
By Milad Fashtami - Trend:
Iran has sent a couple of political messages to certain parties by carrying out airstrikes against the so-called Islamic State (also referred to as ISIL or ISIS) positions in Iraq, Riccardo Alcaro, the coordinator of the EU-funded Transworld project on the future of the transatlantic relationship at the Istituto Affari Internazionali told Trend on Dec. 6.
"The air strikes apparently made little sense. But it can be a political message to the Iraqi Prime Minister Al-Abadi," Alcaro said. "He has been working on reducing excessive influence of Iran on his government. But the airstrikes convey the message that Iran still has influence and is a necessary component of any strategy to victory over IS."
"The strikes took place in an area already targeted by the US, and some analysts believe Iran wanted to send a message to Turkey and the Persian Gulf Arab states that the United States is appreciating its role in the anti-IS fight and is perhaps seeking a more regular cooperation," he said.
Riccardo Alcaro who is a visiting fellow with the Center on the United States and Europe (CUSE) at Brookings Institution- further ruled out any direct link between Iran and the P5+1 nuclear talks, and the recent reports about Iran's airstrikes in Iraq.
"The question is if there is a link between the nuclear talks and the anti-IS fight. It is easy to imagine that success or failure in the nuclear talks will reverberate on the fight against IS, too. However, both issues follow their own logic and will be decided and acted upon according to their own logic. There is no direct link between the two, no trade-off," Alcaro said.
"The US will keep on pushing its own idea of a nuclear deal and there is, at the moment, nothing Iran can offer in the fight against IS that can make the US change its idea of what a good nuclear deal is," the analyst added.
"Cooperation is too strong a word for what is going on Between Tehran and Washington. Now the US and Iran are fighting the same enemy and seem to be content with that. The US is willing to explore further cooperation, but it won't seek it at any cost," he explained.
The U.S. Defense Department reported earlier this week that Iranian fighter jets have attacked IS militants in eastern Iraq in recent days.
The Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Marzieh Afkham, however, said on Dec. 3 that Tehran's policy of providing military assistance based on international regulations has not changed.
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