Sunni Fighting Force still Months Away

According to Saeed, the Abadi government has come up with a series of measures addressing Sunni grievances that have been left unattended. Those include a greater participation in the political process and a global amnesty for prisoners who were not directly involved in terror bombings.

Thousands of Sunnis were arrested after the end of the US occupation in the wake of a wave of terror attacks in which they were not necessarily involved. “There is a lack of Sunni confidence in the political system,” Saeed said.

Now that the United States and the Iraqi government are attempting to defeat IS, in the long term they need to reach a deal with the Sunni tribal leaders and not just rely on Sunni politicians in Baghdad.

“The Sunni politicians in Baghdad are allied with Iran, they do not have power or representation,” Sheikh Ahmad Samarrai and Sheikh Raad Hawi, members of the Iraq tribal coalition, told Al-Monitor. Iraqi Sunnis feel that they have no real representatives. In addition, the two sheikhs said that many Sunni politicians in Baghdad were provided with significant financial assistance against which they were expected to turn a blind eye on pro-Iranian policies.

The process of restoring trust in Iraq’s Sunnis is further complicated by Iran’s heavy intervention in the country’s politics and its support of Shiite militias, and is thus heavily reliant on the introduction of several changes at the local and international level.

“The formation of a national guard that would be a local force that answers to the provincial government is a good idea, because it will ensure that Iraqis are protected by people from their own areas,” Saeed said.