What does an Arab League joint military force mean for the crisis in Yemen?

HARI SREENIVASAN:

The decision today by the 21 nations of the Arab League to create a joint military force because of the crisis in Yemen raises the question, why didn't the organization mobilize the same way to fight ISIS in Iraq?

For more about this and for the latest on the military situation in Iraq, we are joined via Skype by Matt Bradley of The Wall Street Journal.

So, why is it that the Arab states very quickly got involved in Yemen — it's almost a proxy war for Shia and Sunni states — but that's not the case in Iraq?

MATT BRADLEY, The Wall Street Journal:

Well, they did get involved rather quickly in Iraq.

The problem was, was that Iraq was led at the time, on June 10, when Islamic State rampaged through Northern Iraq, they were — Iraq was led by Nouri al-Maliki, who was a personal problem for many of the Sunni Arab leaders in the region.

So, he was considered to be very closely aligned with Iran, but also a lot of the Sunni leaders in the region simply just didn't like him. They didn't consider him to be a reliable partner. And now it's part of the reason why some of the Sunni states, such as Saudi Arabia, were so reluctant to get behind Maliki's effort to repel Islamic State.

And in some ways, they were more than willing sort of tacitly back Islamic State, until they found out the true nature of the threat.

HARI SREENIVASAN:

In Iraq, how likely are we to see any ground forces from the Arab League or even part of the U.S. coalition?

MATT BRADLEY:

It doesn't seem like there's going to be ground forces from the Arab League any time soon.

The Arab League ground forces is — is not — is not a fully developed force quite yet. And so that would have to — if that were to be deployed, it would be quite a long time in the future.

I don't think that the United States or the Iraqis or the Iranians, for that matter, have the kind of patience to wait for a fully developed Arab League force to come together strategically, militarily, and legally to form that kind of legal apparatus that would build an Arab army that has long been the dream of many of the Sunni Arab states.

And they want to move to Mosul later this year and retake Iraq's second largest city from Islamic State, before that city stays too long under Islamic State control and really atrophies economically and politically.

HARI SREENIVASAN:

So, what is an update on the fighting in the battle for Tikrit?

MATT BRADLEY:

Well, Tikrit is now entering — tomorrow, it will be entering the fourth week of its — of the assault on Tikrit.

And what was so unusual about this was that these Iranian-backed militias started the fight in Tikrit on March 2.

And they didn't warn the United States, and they didn't make any effort to coordinate with U.S. airstrikes that have successfully repelled some Islamic State elements throughout the country and in Syria, especially in Kobani, where the United States was really flogging Islamic State.

So, for the first two weeks, these Iranian-backed Shiite militias were able to repel Islamic State from the areas outside of Tikrit. But once it entered the third week, the fight sort of stalled.

And that is when, after a couple of days of that impasse, Baghdad went to the United States and asked them to intervene. And so the United States said, we will intervene, as long as these Shiite militias take a backseat role in the continuing fighting in Tikrit.

So what we are seeing now is a very difficult moment, where these Shiite militias have been asked to sort of withdraw from the front lines while the United States moves forward.

But, without these Shiite militias, who are backed by Iran, in Tikrit, the United States doesn't have a strong, reliable, on-the-ground partner capable of moving in to Tikrit and really liberating it from Islamic State.

HARI SREENIVASAN:

All right, Matt Bradley of The Wall Street Journal, thanks so much.

MATT BRADLEY:

Thank you.