NATO, Iraq seek long-term partnership upon Baghdad's demand

Only half-an-hour drive away from the city center of Amman, Jordan, a state-of-the-art center of excellence meets you in a secluded location on a vast terrain surrounded by high hills, specially equipped for the training of Special Forces and military units, particularly from Iraq and other Middle Eastern countries. 

This is the King Abdullah II Special Operations Training Center, or KASOTC, which was established upon the instructions of King Abdullah II in 2009 and boasts over $200 million worth of training facilities and support structures. 

But what makes this military training center important is not its capacity as a center of excellence but the fact that it trains hundreds of Iraqi security officers under NATO and American programs for the defense capacity building of various Iraqi defense structures. 

These efforts will surely help Iraq better fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and re-capture Mosul and other cities from jihadists but also be strong enough to prevent ISIL, al-Qaeda or other terror organizations from terrorizing and storming the country in the future. 

A was protocol signed between NATO and the Iraqi government this year after Iraq officially requested to benefit from NATO's defense capacity building initiative. Until the end of October, 350 Iraqi officers are expected to be trained at KASOTC in NATO courses in three areas: Counter-improvised explosive devices (IED), military medicine and civil-military planning.

A more stable Iraq, a more secure NATO 

But more is planned, as NATO Deputy Secretary-General Alexander Vershbow explained at a meeting in Brussels on Sept. 26. "At [the] Warsaw Summit, we have decided to expand that program and...