Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi has been offered Military and other forms of aid from Russia to check the advance of IS militant group into Iraq and Syria.
The advances by IS, which captured the Iraqi city of Ramadi last weekend and on Thursday was tightening its grip on the historic city of Palmyra in neighboring Syria, have exposed the shortcomings of Iraq’s army and the limitations of U.S. air strikes.
Speaking over his trip to Russia in the hours of national emergency, Abadi said that he want to underline the importance of his Country’s relation to Russia and added that he has disregarded the opinions of forces which advised to cancel the trip.
“We are expanding cooperation in the area of military technology,” Russian President Vladimir Putin said at the start of talks with Abadi in the Kremlin, hailing Iraq as an “old and reliable partner in the region”.
“Our relations are developing very successfully … Our companies are working in your country and we are talking of investments in the order of billions of dollars,” Putin added, without elaborating.
Earlier on Thursday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow would make every effort to help Iraq defeat Islamic State, whose capture of Ramadi last weekend was the most significant setback for the Baghdad government in a year.
