Sending “Abrams” tank , American advanced defensive and offensive tank , to Iran by one of Iraqi armed factions a few months ago is still a matter of concern to the administration of US President Donald Trump , it was very upset by this sending because US felt that there was a military insult against it , so the US exert great pressure on the Iraqi government to restore it, and this sending put the Iraqi government in a very critical position with the US administration and the international coalition. It also put the US administration in an awkward position in front of the American public.
In order to restore this “Abrams” which is one of the most powerful tanks in the world, used in the second Gulf War, Afghanistan War, Iraq war in 2003 and military intervention in al-Yemen and according to special information obtained by the Rawabet Center for Research and Strategic Studies, Chief of Staff of the US army ,General “Joseph Francis Dunford” and the American ambassador met during the month of last July with both Iraqi Defense Minister Irfan Hayali and the Chief of Staff of the Iraqi army General Othman Ghanimi, they told them of the need to restore the US tank from Iran, and provided them during a meeting with all necessary information concerning the tank as the name of the faction in the popular crowd who sent it to Iran, and provided them with a number of the tank and pictures of it. They also told them that in the absence of the Iraqi government’s ability to restore the tank, this would adversely affect US military aid and other assistance to Iraq. On their part, the Iraqi defense minister Irfan Hayali and the chief of staff of the Iraqi army , General Othman Ghanimi promised the chief of staff of the US army , General “Josef Francis Dunford “to restore the tank as quick as possible .
To send an Abrams tank to Iran is not the first of its kind, especially if we know that the wreckage of the drone and dozens of US “Hammers” and various US weapons arrived to Iran. Moreover, Iraq has become a big market for arms trade as a market “Maridi” in Baghdad, while in Mosul after recovered from the terrorist organization Daesh, Kifri and Kalar districts in Hamidiyah area has become also a market for the sale of arms. It has been sold in the Iraqi arms markets of all kinds of American, Western and Eastern weapons, and most of these weapons are bought by the Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government, as well as they were bought by Iraqi citizens in all governorates of Iraq, and striking here that these weapons and military equipment were sold by a quarter of the real price. For example, a car, Hummer, was sold in the Iraqi arms market in the amount of US $ 30 thousand, while the real price ranges between US $ 280 thousand to 300 thousand US dollars.
Undoubtedly, the US administration request , up to the level of determination from the Iraqi government in the retrieval of Abrams tank, puts its will in front of a real test between the United States , the official sponsor of the Iraqi political system in post-2003 phase which contributed through the military and intelligence support to the Iraqi government in defeating al-Daesh in Mosul and various Iraqi provinces , and between Iran which it has multifaceted influence in it , and the question that arises in this context? Can Iraqi government restore Abrams tank from Iran?
The Iraqi Studies Unit
Rawabet Center for Research and Strategic Studies