OEJOURNAL – According to reports, the Iraqi F-16 fleet is imminent following the withdrawal of US contractors from some military bases in Iraq.
Also based on data released by Forbes magazine, the United States has pushed out several military bases in Iraq, and American contractors and technicians have left Al-Balad Air Base, the site of the Iraqi F-16 fighter jets.
“Since the departure of American technicians, many of these fighters have been grounded, and a senior Iraqi official has said the Iraqi F-16 fighter jets are on the verge of destruction,” the paper said.
“In the current situation, Iraq is able to continue routine flights using F-16 fighter jets over Al-Anbar province to strike at ISIS elements,” Forbes said in a statement, citing the need to maintain the US military presence in Iraq.
Sally Port Global and Lockheed Martin contractors, who were previously in charge of securing the Iraqi F-16 fighter squadron and providing logistical support to the fighters, have left the base.
It is clear that in this way, Washington is seeking to put more pressure on the strategic negotiations with Baghdad so that in any way possible, Iraq can stop the passage of the US parliament’s decision to withdraw US troops.
On the other hand; Forbes reports that the Americans sold their military equipment not to equip the Iraqi defense system but to monopolize arms sales and pave the way for continued presence in the country, so that the equipment would not be useful to the Iraqi army without US contractors. does not have.
Of course, this has not just happened to Iraq as a customer of US military equipment. One example is Turkey’s dispute with the United States over the purchase of Russian S-400s, which put pressure on Turkey to monopolize arms sales.
The recent withdrawal of US technicians and support equipment from Saudi Arabia in the recent confrontation, known as the oil war, is another example of this.
However, according to high-ranking Iraqi officials, at the same time as ISIS’s invasion of Iraq and the request for US assistance, which should have happened immediately under the security agreement between the two countries, the US provided the assistance subject to review and approval. But Iran immediately created an emergency air bridge, even emptying the strategic reserves of its armed forces, to meet Iraq’s need for military equipment in the shortest possible time, and to prevent the fall of the capital and major cities such as Erbil, the capital of Kurdistan.