Arab World

Al-Hayat reports in Arabic that altogether 150 deputies in parliament (well over a majority) signed a memorandum of agreement aimed at resolving the most contentious issues facing Iraq. For their part, the Kurds considered the new alliance as a “wave against them.” Al-Hayat also says the PM Nuri al-Maliki is conducting extensive talks with the […]

The USG Open Source Center translates a statement by Shiite clergyman Muqtada al-Sadr condemning Bush’s Middle East tour. “Iraq: Muqtada al-Sadr Statement Condemns President Bush’s Mideast VisitIraq – OSC SummaryMonday, January 14, 2008 . . . Al-Amarah Militant Al-Amarah News Network in Arabic — website associated with the Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, url: http:// al3marh.net/ […]

Several Sunni, Shiite and secular political parties have come together in a new pact aimed at challenging the dominant coalition of the Kurdistan Alliance and the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq (ISCI). They appear to aim at blocking the formation of a Shiite regional confederacy in the South. They also want to stop oil-rich Kirkuk […]

PM Nuri al-Maliki called for widened political participation. He appears to be working on a compromise that might bring the parties of Iyad Allawi and Tariq al-Hashimi/ Adnan Dulaimi back into his government. Ammar al-Hakim, called on the Iraqi Accord Front and the National Iraqi List to rejoin the al-Maliki government, giving al-Maliki some support. […]

Sunni Arab guerrillas have killed 9 US soldiers in the past two days. They killed 6 and wounded 4 with a bomb in a booby-trapped safe house on Wednesday. The deaths come in the course of an American sweep in Diyala Province aimed at weakening the Salafi radicals. A new World Health Organization study estimates […]

In the US, here is an irony. John McCain, “Mr. Surge,” who dreams of a century-long US occupation of Iraq, was the anti-war candidate for Republicans in Iowa. Yes: ‘ Exit polls found 64 percent of Tuesday’s Republican voters still support the conflict — and Romney, whose criticism of President Bush’s management of the war […]

In a further sign of a determined new year’s counter-attack by the radical Salafis and/or neo-Baathists, a wave of bombings and kidnappings swept Iraq on Monday, leaving 24 dead, dozens wounded. In the eastern Sunni enclave of Adhamiya in Baghdad, now more and more surrounded by purely Shiite districts, Sunni guerrillas attacked the offices of […]

George McGovern is calling for Bush and Cheney to be impeached for high crimes and misdemeanors, including ordering hundreds of warrantless wiretaps on US citizens. Good for him. Even if a plan is impractical, if it is just it should be broached. Guerrillas detonated four deadly bombs in Baghdad on Sunday. One guerrilla struck soldiers […]

Radio Sawa reports in Arabic that Iraqi members of parliament dismiss the pledge of US presidential candidate Barack Obama to end the Iraq War and withdraw US troops from the country. They say it is just campaign talk and that if Obama were elected he would swiftly become more realistic. (It is my firm impression […]