Blair logistics has said it is “not going to” sign a deal with US President Barack Obama’s administration to help deliver equipment to Iraqi forces fighting ISIS.
Blair logistics said in a statement on Monday that it is in “full compliance” with a 2015 memorandum of understanding between the US and Iraq, which calls for it to “support the Iraqi security forces and Kurdish forces, and the Iraqi people, in the fight against the Daesh [ISIL] threat”.
The logistics company, which operates warehouses in the Middle East and Central Asia, said in the statement that the US does not intend to use it to deliver equipment “to the Iraqi armed forces”.
However, it said it will “continue to support the Iraqi government and its people to meet their needs in a peaceful way”.
The statement came after the US administration said it would take over control of the Iraq war effort.
The memorandum of understand calls for Iraq to be given “appropriate authorities to exercise control over its internal security, defence and security services, including the military” in order to ensure “the stability and security of Iraq”.
The US-led military coalition that has been fighting IS in Iraq since 2014 has been unable to dislodge IS from the country since the US-backed Iraqi government withdrew from the capital Baghdad last month.IS captured Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, in 2014.