Senate moves toward supporting supply of US Apache helicopters to Iraq
Senate close to granting approval for the supply of several dozen Apache helicopters to the Iraqi government, which faces a mounting al-Qaeda-lead insurgency
The US Senate is looking more favourably at a request to provide attack helicopters to Iraq, but a top senator has not yet given the Obama administration a green light for military assistance that Baghdad wants to help it rebuff an al-Qaeda bid to seize a western province.
Robert Menendez, a Democrat who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has held back on supporting the lease and sale of several dozen Apache helicopters to the government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki without certain assurances.
Menendez’ concerns have focused on how Washington can ensure that security forces under Maliki, a Shiite increasingly at odds with minority Sunnis in Iraq, use the helicopters prudently. The senator is also concerned about whether officials are keeping Congress sufficiently informed about efforts to ensure Iraq doesn’t permit Iran to ship weapons to Syria across Iraqi airspace.
“The administration is now addressing concerns first raised in July that required responses before this sale could proceed,” said Adam Sharon, a spokesman for the committee. “Provided these issues are sufficiently addressed, Chairman Menendez will be ready to move forward.”
US House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner called for the Obama administration to do more to help Iraq battle the insurgency but stopped short of calling for US troops to return to Iraq.
“We need to get equipment to the Iraqis ... that would help them battle this counterterrorism effort.”
“The president himself ought to take a more active role in dealing with the issues in Iraq,” Boehner told reporters.