Iraq: US-led coalition's bombing of IS in Iraq is ineffective - al-Maliki

Nouri al-Maliki, who stepped down as the head of the Iraqi government last year and remains a vice-president, gave an interview with RT's journalist Ashraf al-Azzawi in Baghdad, Thursday. Al-Maliki commented that the air strikes being conducted by the US-led international coalition are "ineffective" and explained his position on the potential Russian strikes targeting the so-called Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) positions in Iraq. Addressing the situation in Iraq, al-Maliki noted that "it is inconceivable and unacceptable that more than 60 states, which form the coalition and have the most modern aircrafts and weapons, are carrying out the campaign in Iraq for about a year and two months, and ISIS is still present in the country." He went on to say that it is "unacceptable" that the city of Ramadi is controlled by the IS, despite the troops of the coalition which are active in the area. Moreover, according to al-Maliki "ISIS would have failed to occupy" oil refinery in the cities of Ramadi and Baiji, if the US-led coalition had "a real desire to fight with ISIS." Maliki went on to state that there was not "an adequate level of seriousness in dealing with this problem." Answering the question about the possible cooperation with Russia, Iran and Syria, Nouri al-Maliki mentioned that he has already prepared an order to agree on striking against IS positions through the Iraqi parliament. "If it is really a worldwide war against terrorism, so what's wrong to accept the presence of such states like Russia and Iran, which offering the readiness to be the members of this worldwide war?" al-Maliki asked. He went on to state his belief that "it will strengthen forces, coordination, stability and balance." Al-Maliki was removed from the power in September, 2014, after the occupation of city of Mosul in the northern part of Iraq by IS. At the beginning of November 2015, the Iraqi Parliament supported the draft law concerning a limitation of Prime Minister (currently, Haider al-Abadi) authority.