Oct 14, 2015

TEHRAN, Iran — The already complex situations in Iraq and Syria have become more complicated following the announcement that an intelligence sharing command base has been formed by Iran, Russia, Syria and Iraq. The base, which is slated to be set up in Baghdad, is geared to enhance collaboration in the fight against the Islamic State (IS).

News of the initiative was originally reported by the Russian news agency Sputnik. It quoted a Russian diplomatic source as saying, “This shared intelligence base will be formed by the representatives of the chiefs of joint military staff of each of these four countries. … The first goal of the base is to gather intelligence regarding the region in the framework of fighting against this terrorist group. After the data is collected, it will be analyzed and will eventually be forwarded to the related organizations in the armed forces of each of these countries.” The Russian source added that “the command of this base will rotate every three months between the member states and the first rotating president will be Iraq.” Russia's official representative to the base, Sergei Kuralenko, further stated that “all four countries will have equal responsibilities in coordinating the fight against [IS]. The responsibilities of each side will be determined by a special charter, which will be soon adopted.”

Although Russian media and Russian officials have been very clear and detailed about the base, it appears that Iranian officials still have their doubts. For example, the Iranian ambassador to Iraq, Hassan Danaeifar, responded to the news by saying, “This is a rumor! It is not as serious as it sounds. Iran has its own plans for fighting against Daesh [IS] in Iraq and Syria. Iran’s plans include logistic, consultation and training, and we are seriously following up on them. We have our own plans and we are depending on those.” In addition, during his recent trip to New York, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani told a gathering of media professionals, “[Russian President] Mr. Putin had personally asked me to form a strategic coalition with him against terrorism in Syria. However, there is no strategic coalition between Tehran and Moscow.”

In the meantime, it appears that Iraqi officials are most eager about the base. The Iraqi prime minister's spokesman, Saad al-Hadithi, told French media that “the intelligence sharing base which is about to be formed is a joint coordination committee between the four countries mentioned. Security issues will determine when this committee will start to function.”

Of note, the United States has not welcomed the formation of this military intelligence collaboration. US Deputy Secretary of Defense Robert Work reacted to news of the joint base by saying, “We were caught by surprise that Iraq entered into this agreement with Syria and Iran and Russia. Obviously, we are not going to share intelligence with either Syria or Russia or Iran. So we are in the process of working to try to find out exactly what Iraq has said. We're not going to provide any classified information to help those actors on the battlefield.”