Next month's parliamentary election is probably the most dramatic in Iraq's recent history. Given the highly partisan atmosphere at a time of "conflict fatigue", a meaningful and effective election is crucial for the nation's stability and its (...)
The Baghdad Summit meeting last month that brought together several regional rivals has injected fresh hopes into calming tensions and building a larger community with a shared future for the Middle East nations and ushered in a new era for (...)
Two decades ago at the beginning of the 21st century, the Arab world looked to be at a crossroads and facing huge challenges and perspectives.
The region was moving forward cautiously a decade after the Gulf War to remove Saddam Hussein's forces (...)
Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi was basking in the international limelight with the support of the country's allies this week at the most extraordinary conference ever held by his government. The summit, which brought Iraq's neighbours (...)
For nearly four decades, the Middle East has been picking up the pieces of the US strategic folly in Afghanistan and paying the price for its unending wars in the region.
The debacle led to the creation of Islamic jihad by CIA proxies that rose (...)
Iraq's problems reflect broader issues within the country's dysfunctional governance, but its Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi, believes that with some tactical twists he can use foreign diplomacy to overcome Iraq's formidable troubles.
In order to (...)
There is a consensus among pundits, experts, and diplomats that the stakes of the Iraqi parliamentary elections this October are a major test of Iraq's ability to conduct a free-and-fair vote.
Indeed, the stakes may go well beyond these crucial (...)
Four times a week, an Iraqi Airways Boeing 747 leaves Baghdad Airport for Minsk, the capital of Belarus, with hundreds of Iraqis on board. The passengers are not going to one of Europe's newfound tourist destinations but are refugees seeking shelter (...)
When the Iraqi Shia cleric Muqtada Al-Sadr met with a group of his lieutenants at his base in the Shia holy city of Najaf in southern Iraq earlier this month, he had a message he wanted them to convey nationwide.
"If the Sadrist trend is a football (...)
On 23 August 1921, Faisal Bin Al-Hussein, son of the sharif of Mecca, was proclaimed king of Iraq, which had been carved by the British colonial power as a state out of the former Ottoman Empire after World War I.
Faisal was chosen by British (...)
Rhetoric has been used in Iraq to gain broader influence in local politics and to focus attention on special interests. The practice has been instrumental in avoiding commitment to a national agenda and in fuelling discussion on communal aspects of (...)
Underlining the commitment of their countries to further deepening relations, the leaders of Egypt, Iraq, and Jordan met this week for the first time in Baghdad amid efforts to transform Iraq into a stable and functioning country.
Egyptian (...)
Drought is on the verge of becoming Iraq's next crisis, and the immediate question is whether the country's leadership can tackle the severe water shortages it is facing and avoid an impending catastrophe.
Iraq is experiencing one of its worst (...)
Iranian voters are about to head to the polls to elect a new president. Once again, the debate in the Arab world is about whether the elections will bring any meaningful change in the Islamic Republic's policies towards the region.
There is almost (...)
Despite the prevailing peace in Iraq's Sunni-populated provinces today, the thousands of refugees who fled their towns and cities following the Islamic State (IS) group's rise in 2014 are still hesitant to return home.
Those who have done so have (...)
The most frequent buzzwords in Iraq these days are "sovereignty", "prestige" and "respect" for the state. Yet, these are also the most ridiculed concepts. Since he was appointed prime minister last May Mustafa Al-Kadhimi has made reviving the state (...)
It is the "David and Goliath" scenario again, only there has been a role-change from the Biblical text where Saul and the Israelites are facing the Philistines in the Valley of Elah. The underdog, or the smaller and weaker opponent, in the contest (...)
During its standoff with the Lebanese Shia militant group Hizbullah in 2006, Israel responded with an all-out war beginning with a blockade and an intense aerial bombing campaign. The campaign was later developed into a military blueprint called the (...)
If a single impulse has defined Iranian diplomacy over the past decade, it is the smile of Mohamed Javad Zarif. The Iranian Foreign Minister has consistently used charm to try and free his embattled nation of its rigid shell.
Through such smooth (...)
The Palestinian elections next month will be the first since political violence in the 2006 election. It was that violence between the mainstream Fatah faction and the Islamist militant group Hamas – the two forces that have dominated Palestinian (...)
The Arab states that emerged from the end of the Ottomans' rule following World War I have always had uneasy relationships with Turkey, which is largely seen as the continuation of the Ottoman Empire and a troubled Ottoman-Arab history.
Over the (...)
Over the last few months Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have stepped up efforts to enhance cooperation with Iraq, which still relies heavily on neighbouring Iran in energy and other economic domains.
The two Sunni (...)
If the Iraqi government and the United Nations are to be believed, "a national dialogue" among political forces to be held before the October parliamentary elections might help rebuild a stable and peaceful Iraq.
Last month incumbent Prime Minister (...)
Two months into his presidency Joe Biden faces mounting criticism for his Middle East policy. Strategic experts across the region feel it lacks focus, with neither a clear set of objectives nor sufficient engagement with regional power houses.
Even (...)
Over the last two weeks Iraq's lawmakers have struggled to pass legislation that would create a Supreme Federal Court (SFC) to serve as the country's primary constitutional platform, and is also required for endorsing the results of a crucial early (...)
