Meet your new Middle East king maker:
Russia has expressed its readiness to train and arm the Iraqi security forces, the Iraqi parliament’s security and defense committee said in a statement issued Thursday.
Committee member Hoshyar Abdullah said that, during a recent visit to Russia, committee members had met their counterparts in the Russian State Duma’s defense committee, with whom they had discussed bilateral military and intelligence cooperation.
“The Russians want a strong alliance against terrorism… and have therefore expressed their readiness to train and arm the Iraqi army,” said Abdullah.
Russian officials, he added, had told delegation members that Moscow’s policy in Iraq was based on “maintaining the unity of Iraq and its people”.
According to Abdullah, the Russians had stressed the importance of averting the fragmentation of Iraq and the need to step up coordination between the central government in Baghdad and Iraq’s autonomous northern Kurdish region.
Full article: Russia ready to arm, train Iraqi army (World Bulletin)
Global Geopolitics 