Foreign reports of an Israeli base and the uproar in Iraq: Parliament in the Arab country has decided to summon the defense and interior ministers for an urgent debate following the reports in the US.
On Saturday, The Wall Street Journal reported that Israel had established a secret military base in the desert in southwestern Iraq, which operated for a limited period. According to the report, the base was intended to support strikes against the Iranian regime in Operation Rising Lion. Among other things, the report said special forces were stationed at the compound and that it served as a logistical support hub for the Israeli Air Force.
A source in the office of the Iraqi parliament speaker told Arab media that the ministers would be summoned along with relevant security officials for a discussion on the matter. He also noted that on March 4, an Iraqi army strike was approved in the desert between the provinces of al-Anbar and Najaf, near Saudi Arabia. According to him, the strike took place when the Iraqi force approached a location where an unidentified force was present. The official assessed that Iraq's security agencies ultimately assumed it was an American force operating under the auspices of the international coalition.
Against this backdrop, Iraqi MK Raad al-Maliki accused the US of handing Iraqi airspace over to Israel during the war. "The US handed Iraqi airspace over to the entity during the war and ordered radar operations to be halted. Now it turns out that land was also used to establish a secret intelligence center or base for the entity. This is a major breach, and all intelligence, security and national security bodies must be held accountable for it."
Meanwhile, a heated exchange took place on the Saudi channel Al Arabiya between Hussein Allawi, an adviser to the Iraqi prime minister, and the presenter. The adviser refused to confirm the reports that an Israeli force had operated in southwestern Iraq and argued that, as far as he knew, it was an "unidentified force." In response, the presenter mocked him, saying, "Fine, we agree. They were forces from the planet Pluto. Who bears the political and security responsibility?"
