Leaders of Iraq's 'triple alliance' meet with Turkish president, intelligence chief

ByNews Desk- The Cradle 

The unofficial visit by the two Sunni political leaders is raising many concerns about the strength of the alliances formed by the Sadrist movement

A picture showing Iraq’s Parliament speaker Mohamed al-Halbousi and the leader of the Azm Alliance, Khamis al-Khanjar, with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the country’s intelligence chief in Ankara is raising concerns about the Sadrist bloc’s claims of not supporting “neither east nor west.”

According to a statement released by the Sunni parties, Al-Habousi and Al-Khanjar made the trip on 26 February to discuss facilitating visas for their country’s citizens.

The two Sunni leaders recently joined forces with the Sadrist movement, the largest parliamentary bloc in congress, which received massive support from the electorate due to their political project to move Iraq past any regional alliances.

According to Iraqi media reports, Al-Habousi and Al-Khanjar’s visit to the Turkish capital was made without any prior announcement and has raised many eyebrows as they supposedly only held talks with the chief of the National Intelligence Organization, Hakan Fidan.

Experts believe that this move by the Sunni leaders diminishes the strength of the so-called “triple alliance” between the Sadrist bloc, the Sunni parties, and the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP).

Last year Al-Habousi and Al-Khanjar were reportedly summoned to Ankara ahead of Iraq’s parliamentary elections in an attempt by the Turkish president to form a Sunni political bloc that would crush Shia parties affiliated with the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU).

According to information made available exclusively to The Cradle, Erdogan sent private jets to Iraq to fly Al-Halbousi and Al-Khanjar directly to Ankara in a scheme that was orchestrated directly from the White House.

In return, Erdogan reportedly asked Washington for a $15 billion investment package to be paid by the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

However, the cloak and dagger scheme was not to be, as the Turkish President failed to bring the Iraqi political leaders together to do Washington’s bidding.

Following their visit, the Iraqi political leaders said they had discussed “the political situation in the region [and] the importance of economic relations between Iraq and Turkey.”