Iraq

Trump allegedly complained to Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu that after the 2015 nuclear deal, the Iranians “think they can do anything they want.” Presumably Trump was referring to Iran’s geopolitical reach in the Middle East, where it had gathered up allies in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen. It is likely that Trump’s violation of […]

Iraq

Iraq Election Winner Muqtada al-Sadr calls on Militias to Disarm

Middle East Monitor

Iraqi cleric Muqtada al-Sadr called on Friday for a nationwide disarmament campaign and announced his Baghdad stronghold would be first to disarm just two days after an ammunitions cache exploded there and killed 18 people. Sadr, whose political bloc won Iraq’s parliamentary election in May, called on all armed groups to hand in their weapons […]

Iraq

Widespread Fraud? Iraq Elections upended as Parliament Orders Full Recount of 11 Million Votes

AFP

By Omar al-Kateb Baghdad (AFP) – Iraq’s parliament Wednesday ordered a manual recount of the May 12 legislative elections and sacked the commission which oversaw the polls that resulted in a surprise victory for a populist Shiite cleric. After several failed attempts because of a lack of quorum, outgoing MPs met to order a recount […]

Donald Trump

In Remote Iraqi town, US Troops and Iran-Backed Militias are already Facing Off

Mustafa Habib

Baghdad (Niqash.org) – Locals in Al Qaim, Anbar, worry that the current stable security situation can’t last. It’s being upheld by US troops and Iran-allied militias, whose antipathy toward one another is becoming more overt all the time. Iraqi troops searching a secret IS base near Al Qaim. (photo: Iraqi Ministry of Defence). The people […]

Iraq

With Some Sunnis Voting for Shiites, is Iraq After ISIL Becoming Less Sectarian?

Karl Kaltenthaler

Cleveland, Oh. (The Conversation) – The results of May 2018 the Iraqi parliament election shocked many. The surprising results could mean a different phase in Iraq’s political trajectory has begun. Most observers were expecting an easy win for Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi‘s slate of candidates from all 19 of the country’s provinces. As an analyst […]

Iraq

Why Muqtada al-Sadr’s Shocking Victory in Iraq Elections isn’t that Shocking

Mustafa Habib

Baghdad (Niqash.org) The results of the Iraqi elections were surprising. But in fact, the way Iraqis were feeling about local politics beforehand indicates that nobody should actually have been all that surprised. The morning after the preliminary announcements about who had won and who had lost in the Iraqi elections, it was clear that Iraqis […]

Iraq

Still not Bush’s Iraq: Anti-American Cleric, Pro-Iran Militia and Communists ahead in Election

Sarah Benhaida

Baghdad (AFP) – An alliance spearheaded by nationalist cleric Moqtada Sadr, whose fighters once battled the United States, led Monday in surprise preliminary results from Iraq’s first poll since the defeat of the Islamic State group. In a further political upset, a rival bloc of pro-Iranian former fighters appeared to be coming in second, squeezing […]

Iraq

Now Iraq is regularly bombing Syria . . . to Blast ISIL Remnants

AFP

Baghdad (AFP) – Iraqi warplanes carried out a raid Sunday targeting Islamic State group commanders in eastern Syria, in the second such strike on the jihadists since mid-April, the premier’s office said. Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi ordered the “painful strike” which targeted “a meeting of IS commanders south of Al-Dushashiya in Syrian territory”, a statement […]

Elections

Iraqi Journalist Who Threw Shoes at Bush Running For Parliament

TeleSur

After the incident that made him famous worldwide, Muntazer Zaidi started a foundation aiming at providing relief to Iraqi victims of the U.S. occupation. Ten years after he threw both his shoes at George W. Bush during a press conference in Baghdad, making worldwide headlines and sparking a small diplomatic crisis, journalist Muntazer Zaidi is […]