Iraqi militias owe allegiance to Iran, says Fmr Bush administration official

ERBIL (Kurdistan24) – John B. Craig, Senior Director for Combating Terrorism under Former U.S. President George W. Bush, on Monday held an exclusive interview with Kurdistan24, where he claimed that “Iraq is giving up some of its sovereignty,” in a reference to Iranian influence over the country.

Craig said that “the government of Iraq is highly influenced by the government of Iran and in this case, I think it's Iran that's pulling the strings,” while stressing that, “the U.S. has good relations with Iraq and [it] knows how to deal with Iraq as an independent country.”

The counter-terrorism specialist was U.S. Ambassador to Oman from 1998 to 2001. He has also served as Director of Arabian Peninsula Affairs, Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs in the Department of State, and Deputy Chief of Missions in Syria and Colombia.

Speaking of the militias in Iraq, Craig underscored that they “owe their allegiance first of all to Iran and they're also part of the Iraqi security apparatus, so it's a very difficult issue. Eliminating them would mean cutting off the influence of Iran.”

“Iraq is giving up some of its sovereignty to the control of Iran. Iraq is not capable of exercising its sovereignty because of this huge influence that Iran has over the government,” he noted while adding, “Iran is present in the area. The United States and the Europeans are not. Iran has many proxies and they have the capability of supplying those proxies and provisioning those proxies with arms and money.”

Aside from his duties in public office, Craig has held senior executive roles at Boeing and the Abu Dhabi-based Jadwin Group, a business consulting firm.

Craig later refuted pro-Iran pundits and their argument that Iran doesn't have complete control over the militias it supports throughout the Middle East. “I think Iran has a large measure of control over all of its proxies and Iran is going for the big prize which is to be recognized, to become the hegemon, the single most important player in the Middle East. This is something that the United States and the Europeans are going to have to deal with.”

"Iran has already shown that it has really big influence in five countries: Lebanon, Syria, Afghanistan, Yemen and Libya,” the political commentator underlined.

After the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the U.S., the Bush administration appointed Craig as its Special Assistant to the President for Combatting Terrorism, a role he held until 2003.

“I don't think you can say at all that the attack by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and other surrogates in Iraq is independent of Iran doing this. Iran is exciting these entities to attack American interests,” he concluded.

Since July, 2010, Craig has had Ambassador-in-Residence status in the Center for Global Understanding and Peacemaking at Elizabethtown College in Pennsylvania.  He retains his business activities in the Middle East, while basing his operations from the U.S. state.