After the announcement of his mediation .. Will Iraq succeed in extinguishing the Iranian-American fire?

Laith Nateq - Baghdad

Iraq may have sensed some of the heat of the flames that may raging between the United States and Iran, rushed Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi to announce at a news conference on Tuesday his intention to send delegations to the capitals Tehran and Washington to "push things to calm" between them.

After escalating tension between the two sides and strengthening Washington 's military presence in the region in response to what it said were Iranian threats, Iraq has faced the reality of a possible conflict that would not be tolerated if it was to escalate, amid fears that it might be stuck in a critical corner again after it breathed a sigh of relief. Has just interacted with the outside world after decades of isolation.

Is neutrality work?
Prior to that, the Iraqi leaders were reiterating the position of neutrality in the crisis, which was reaffirmed by Abdul Mahdi at the conference itself, but the fragility of the Iraqi situation and many other considerations suggest Iraq's inability to stand this position, according to political analyst Ahmed Al-Abyad.

"The mediator usually has to be credible at both sides of the conflict or at least one of the parties, and Iraq does not have these features," he said in an exclusive interview with Al-Jazeera Net.

The political analyst Manaf al-Musawi believes that Baghdad can play the role of "firefighter" in this crisis because of the presence of the parties at home, and for three other reasons summarized by Al Jazeera Net "the awareness of both parties the danger of war in the region, because it represents the center of the largest oil production, and the ability of the parties to negotiate Despite mutual threats given their unwillingness to go to war and, third, Iraq's good relations with Iran and the United States. "

Doubts
The announcement of this Iraqi prime minister came on the eve of a declared visit to Kuwait, which is hoped to carry among its files recently a joint Iraqi-Kuwaiti mediation to calm the growing tension in the region between the United States and Iran, despite the denial of the Iraqi ambassador to Kuwait Alaa al-Hashemi to know whether the visit will address that .

The Iraqi government did not reveal the identities of the members of the "calm" delegation, which Ahmed al-Abyad believes is difficult to provide for "the lack of an Iraqi character capable of playing this role." He pointed out that "Iraq lacks sufficient weapons to create an initiative of this size."

On the other hand, adviser to the Committee on Foreign Relations in the Iraqi parliament Abbas al-Nabouri that this initiative is a first step to the return of Iraq to play a key role between the countries of the region and the world, an opportunity to familiarize the world with Iraq's diplomatic capabilities, stressing the existence of a "critical" point to be aware of this initiative , That "the time factor is not in Tehran's interest, the longer the economic siege extended the greater the possibility of the emergence of internal problems."

Iraqi interest
Al-Nabouri also believes that "the Iraqi neutrality worked by the government and the House of Representatives and the Presidency of the Republic is the most important armaments of the initiative," citing Iraq's strong desire to end this conflict by avoiding "the negative impact of disputes on him, especially with his dependence on Iran by supplying gas and electricity and inability to To fill the shortfall quickly enough despite Washington's promises to help him. "

It is hoped that imports of Iranian natural gas to Iraq will increase from 28 million cubic meters a month to 35 million, and stop them from depriving the country of 4,000 megawatts of electricity.