WarSclerotic

Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, warned Iran about trying to expand its influence in Iraq when the US military pulls out at the end of the year, telling the Islamic regime not to “miscalculate” the extent of Washington’s support for Baghdad.

Her warning comes amid increasing fears that Iran will use its proxies in Iraq to gain greater political and military control of its neighbour, following President Barack Obama’s announcement on Friday that all 46,000 US troops will leave Iraq by the end of the year.

“In addition to a very significant diplomatic presence in Iraq … we have bases in neighbouring countries, we have our Nato ally in Turkey, we have a lot of presence in that region,” Mrs Clinton told CNN on Sunday.

“So no one, most particularly Iran, should miscalculate about our continuing commitment to and with the Iraqis going forward,” she said from Uzbekistan, near the end of a trip around central Asia and the Middle East.

In a separate interview with CNN, President Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad of Iran was asked if his government would be interested in training and support in Iraq.

“I think we should have done it sooner, maybe seven or eight years ago,” Mr Ahmadi-Nejad responded.

Mr Obama decided to order a complete pull-out of US troops from Iraq after his administration failed to reach a deal with Iraq’s fractured government that would have allowed a small American training force to remain in the country next year.

Baghdad and Washington had been in discussions for months about the size and scope of a continued US mission in Iraq, with senior Pentagon officials expressing certainty that there would be some kind of residual force involving several thousand American military trainers.

The top US commanders in Iraq had been lobbying for at least 18,000 troops to remain, but the administration was working on a plan that would have seen between 3,000 and 5,000 stay behind.

All Iraqi political blocs, with the exception of the Iran-backed Sadrists, wanted some American troops to remain to help train Iraqi security forces but they could not agree to the US’s non-negotiable requirement that US troops had to be immune from prosecution under Iraqi law.

Some analysts have warned that a smaller US military presence could leave Iraq vulnerable to greater Iranian influence.

Shia militias backed by Iran, notably the Mahdi Army led by the firebrand cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, have vehemently opposed any continued US presence and have stepped up violent attacks this year. They will probably now take the credit for “forcing out” the American military.

John McCain, the former Republican presidential contender and ranking member on the Senate’s armed services committee, called Mr Obama’s decision “a serious mistake”.

“There was never really serious negotiation between the administration and the Iraqis. They could have clearly made an arrangement for US troops,” Mr McCain told ABC News from the World Economic Forum meeting in Jordan.

“I’m here in the region and yes, it is viewed in the region as a victory for the Iranians … Sadr just announced that, once the military is gone, that embassy personnel will be targets,” he said.

But Leon Panetta, the defence secretary, expressed confidence Iraq would be able to deal with any threat from Iran-backed militants after the US withdrawal.

“Iraq itself has developed an effective force to be able to deal with those threats,” Mr Panetta told reporters after meeting with Southeast Asian defence ministers on the Indonesian resort island of Bali, according to Reuters.

“And what we’ve seen in the past when we had concerns about what Iran was doing was that Iraq itself conducted operations against those Shia extremist groups … They did it in conjunction with our support and we thought they did a great job. And they’ll continue to do that,” he said.

In his announcement on Friday, Mr Obama appeared to leave open the possibility of helping Iraq with military training at some stage in the future. “We will continue discussions on how we might help Iraq train and equip its forces, just as we offer training and assistance to countries around the world,” he said.

Mrs Clinton echoed that on Sunday, saying there would be a “support and training mission” in addition to the usual military personnel that work in the US embassy.

“This will be run out of an office of security co-operation. It will be comparable to what we’ve done in many countries where we handle military sales,” she said. The Iraqi government recently bought M1A1 Abrams tanks from the US and has out in an order for 18F-16 fighter jets, which its pilots will require training to fly.

Lockheed Martin, the maker of the planes, also has a contract to train the pilots.