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Iraq, Siding with Iran, Sends Essential Aid to Syria's Assad
(Washington Post) Joby Warrick - More than six months after the start of the Syrian uprising, Iraq is offering key moral and financial support to Syria's president, undermining a central U.S. policy objective and raising fresh concerns that Iraq is drifting further into the orbit of an American arch rival - Iran. While other Arab states have downgraded ties with Assad, Iraq is hosting official visits by Syrians, signing pacts to expand business ties and offering political support. Iraq has also supported Iran's right to nuclear technology. "The Iraqis know the Iranians are looking over their shoulders," said David Pollock, a former adviser on Middle East policy for the State Department during the George W. Bush administration and now a researcher for the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Pollock noted that Iranian-backed cleric Moqtada al-Sadr - a firebrand Iraqi Shiite with tens of thousands of devoted followers - has publicly backed Assad, calling him a "brother."