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Authorized by President Joe Biden, the US military carried out airstrikes last week against weapons storage facilities used by Iran-backed militias in the Iraq-Syria border region.

The attack provoked a wave of condemnation, although the White House defended its action as a self-defense measure to protect the interests of the US and its allies. The Department of Defense said US forces were in Iraq at the invitation of its government for the sole purpose of assisting the Iraqi security forces in their efforts to defeat Daesh, but Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi was not at all pleased with the US action against the very militias that are trying to weaken his powers.

Kadhimi’s office said the attack was a flagrant violation of Iraqi sovereignty, and that Baghdad’s National Security Council was studying all available legal options to prevent the recurrence of conduct that “violatesIraq’s airspace and territory.”

These conflicting views reflect the nature of current US-Iraq relations, and give a clear picture of the magnitude of Iran’s influence on a supposedly sovereign country.

If Biden wants to send an important message of deterrence, to show that he is prepared to act appropriately to protect the US and its personnel in Iraq, he should have chosen the appropriate target and the right location.

The Pentagon said two Iran-backed militia groups, Kata’ib Hezbollah and Kata’ib Sayyid Al-Shuhada, used the bases targeted by the US to launch drone attacks on US assets. In fact, these militias are not merely backed by Iran — they and others are under the direct command of Brig. Gen. Esmail Ghaani, commander of the Quds Force, the powerful overseas division of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Striking a couple of bases in remote areas does no serious damage to the structure of these militias, so it was a waste of money and ammunition on the wrong target. If the US wants to send a clear and firm message to Tehran that it will no longer tolerate hostile acts against its interests and those of its allies in Iraq and the region, the place to do that is Vienna — where talks are currently taking place to revive the moribund Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the 2015 deal to curb Iran’s nuclear program.

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