On the impact of the battles taking place in the city of Mosul for more than 7 months, the Iraqi-Syrian border see, stretching across the Anbar desert down to the city of Mosul, a fierce race and a struggle between US forces and its allies on the one hand and the forces of the popular crowd on the other hand, to control it. On 28 of the last May, the popular crowd forces announced that it has reached the border area with Syria at the level of the village of Um Jeris located within the district of Sinjar. The arrival at the border is a significant development in the course of the war against Daesh which its control over areas of Iraq are limited in a number of isolated Pockets, including a small area of the western side of the city of Mosul, where the Iraqi forces is narrowing down on ISIS day after day, while the restoration of border areas will cut on its fighters ways of communication and Logistics between its strongholds and sites of its control on both sides of the Iraqi-Syrian border. Shiite crowd described its advance, in a statement on its website, to the border with Syria as a “miracle in Ramadan.”
The leader of the popular crowd Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis said the military operations carried out by the popular crowd forces in the areas west of Nineveh , aimed at cleaning the Iraqi border with Syria, and the crowd forces will follow any presence of the organization outside Iraq threatens the security of Iraq. For its part, the Kurdish units in Syria was quick to warn the Iraqi popular crowd to entering areas under its control in the province of Hasaka , claiming the pursuit of Daesh . Talal Slaw spokesman for “democratic forces of Syria said , ” – that The People’s Protection Units constitute its backbone and lead it – on Wednesday , “We will confront any attempt by the popular crowd to enter areas under our control , we will not allow any forces to enter areas which are within our control . ” It began to escalate, and the Iraqi border can be the new field of US – Iranian conflict in Iraq. And evidenced by the crossing of the Iraqi popular crowd forces, which went two days ago to the Syrian – Iraqi border, in cooperation and coordination with protection units of Chenkal (Kurdistan Workers forces PKK) crossed the Syrian – Iraqi border, and seized control of two villages of Rive Hasaka within the territory of West Kurdistan (Kurdistan of Syria). Before being forced to withdraw. The incursion of the forces of the popular crowd was considered as a test of the international coalition, which provides protection for fighters of Arabs and Kurds in areas of eastern Syria.
This means that the border battle is a strategic dimension beyond Iraq itself and relates to a struggle of influence waged by Iran and shared by Turkey and the United States. The arrival of the popular crowd forces backed by Iran means that the latter has won a round in the conflict, placing the hand on the critical areas to secure the line connecting and communicating between them and Syria through Iraqi territory. The question that arises in this context, what did make Iran to think to have a foothold on the Iraqi-Syrian border?
Since that Iraq has lost its national sovereignty by the US occupation on the ninth of April 2003, and this loss is reinforced with the first beneficiary of the occupation, which is Iran, which managed by Iraqi allies to achieve semi control if were not complete – on the joints of the Iraqi political system, as Iraq has become in the era of former Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and to this day, walking within a framework of policies that Iran has determined to it , specifically after the Syrian revolution against the rule of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, and the emergence of al-Daesh in the Iraqi scene all levels .
Syria is an essential part of Iran’s geopolitical project and President Bashar al-Assad is a pillar, where its influence is based upon , at least at the current stage, and due to its bad relations with various Syrian components , even non-Sunni community , so Syria’s departure from the circle of Iranian control constitute a loss that it is difficult to compensate because of its firm repercussions on its influence in the rest of the region, and Syria is the front line that ensures for Iran an important protection in the face of Arab enemies and others, as well as its symbolic status in the Shiite thought in view of the presence of the holy shrines there.
Therefore, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon are representing the regional priorities for Iran. Iraq is more than a first priority expressed by some Iranian politicians in a symbolic way, when they say that Baghdad is the capital of their “empire” .And If we know that the presence of Iran in Lebanon is linked to its influence in Syria, and we assume the importance of Hezbollah, and its eagerness to support its capabilities. So, Syria will be a priority that comes in second place immediately after Iraq. Lebanon is the other face of this priority. Either Iran maintains its influence in the two countries together, or to loss them at the same time. And it is not secret that its presence in Syria is the most important factors of continuing influence in Lebanon , depending on Hezbollah’s political power, and its Lebanese ally gets this power by the possession of the weapon that Iran sends it to him through Syria, if it lost the Syrian “crossing” , it would loss Lebanon, or almost.
From here , Qassem Soleimani’s visit to Iraq came between 8 , 9 January 2015 , where he met with Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi and also met with Shiite political forces and the crowd popular and all other militias and individually , each separately, explaining to them that the battle of Tehran and Baghdad today is the battle of Syria to maintain our ally Bashar al-Assad there, and not the battle to liberate Mosul from the organization Daesh, and in order to achieve it , we must provide all forms of support to him and it is in the creation of corridor starts from the Iran-Iraq border, passing through Iraq’s land “Samarra, Al-Alam , Baiji, and Sharqat, al-Hatra , Tal- Afar “down to the Syrian depth.
Iran after its control over Iraq and fully, especially the northern and western regions, which were an obstacle to its expansionist ambitions in the region; being a predominantly Sunni areas, is now considering the need for control of the Iraqi-Syrian border through the militias in Iraq and Syria; and to announcing the Shiite Crescent, which spoke a lot about it officially. And that the signs of conflict between Iran, which seeks to find a land route between it and its ally Syria through Iraq, and the United States of America, which is working to prevent the control of militias loyal to Iran on the border at any cost.
Military deployment extends in Syria against the popular crowd forces sites; from the city of Maliki of Rif Al-Hasakah to the Alojrash point where the protection units of the Kurdish people control . And from a point of Shehab borders on both sides of the Syrian – Iraqi border where the state organization controls from the far north – east of Syria until the Valley of Walaja point in the Syrian desert near the Al Tanf crossing.
And from al-Tanf point until the Iraqi – Syrian- Jordanian triangle, the control of the Free Syrian Army extends over the region, ie , that the Syrian regime forces have no presence on the Syrian – Iraqi border.
Observers believe that this situation creates a problem regarding the nature of the forces concerned with guarding the borders of the countries handled by regular forces, while this description does not apply to the popular crowd that remains irregular forces no matter how different the descriptions are. Observers see what makes this scene stranger that Iraq has a regular army, and there are irregular forces on the other side of the border. On the Syrian side, the border is divided into parts controlled by the People’s Protection units (Kurdish militia), Daesh and Free Syrian Army. The observers concludes that this situation will make these borders flammable at any time, especially as the popular crowd pointed out many times to the possibility of crossing the border, making the supposition of ignition gaining more strength even before the settlement of the continued battle in Mosul.
It seems that the struggle to control the border between the US states on the one hand and the forces of the popular crowd, which declares its allegiance to Iran, not only military but carrying political and expansionary dimensions in the region. By this, on one hand and on the other hand that the assignment of securing the border to the militias rather than regular forces is a leap in the dark (a step without knowing what will happen ) at the level of Iraqi national security . It exposes the military data resulting from the crushing and defeat Daesh in Mosul to set aside because of overlapping goals between what is an Iraqi goal and what is Iranian one. So the pursuit of the remnants of al Daesh fleeing Mosul is an Iraqi national goal of which is intended to eliminate completely the terrorist organization but the access to the Syrian border and secure land route to it is in the Iranian interest.
Despite the importance of the control of the popular crowd on the Tanf border, which is in the interest of Iran, but the control of the route of Sinjar remains the most important for it, so Iran may use the Tanf area to negotiate with the United States in the framework of political bargaining, but it is difficult to give up about al-Hatra and Tal Afar, which guarantees the access to its allies in Syria and Lebanon.
The Iraqi Studies Unit
Rawabet Center for Research and Strategic Studies