Archives for February 2009

The Iraqi provincial election results are out. They confirm what I said last Monday, that the parties who want a strong, united Iraq have come to the fore in these elections. Although Nuri al-Maliki’s Da’wa Party got over a third of the votes in Baghdad and Basra, they clearly did not achieve a commanding position, […]

It is being alleged by US pundits that the outcome of the provincial elections in Iraq, as far as it is known, indicates a defeat for the religious parties and for Iran. This allegation is not true. In the Shiite provinces, the coalition of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq and the Islamic Mission Party […]

Neither the Obama administration nor the Iranian government seems likely to rush into new contacts, despite the opportunity presented by the Munich Security Conference, according to the LAT. Iranian Speaker of the Parliament, Ali Larijani, has called on Obama to spell out in specifics just what changes he intends to introduce into US policy toward […]

A common response from the Right to President Obama’s capping of CEO salaries and bonuses at $500,000 a year in companies that take big USG bailout money has been to warn that it will be difficult to attract the best management talent to run those firms. Uh, wasn’t it those geniuses, the ‘top management talent’ […]

Iran put a satellite into low earth orbit on Tuesday, in honor of the anniversary of the revolution that brought the Islamic Republic to power in 1979. US, German and other Western officials expressed anxiety that the same technology used in the launches could also be used to develop an Iranian ballistic missile. Iran insists […]

The USG Open Source Center translates a short interview with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on the timetable for US troop withdrawal from Iraq. ‘Al-Maliki Says Withdrawal of US Forces From Iraq ‘Might be Sooner’ Than ScheduleCorrected version: correcting source in line 1Iraq– OSC SummaryTuesday, February 3, 2009 . . . The Iraq Agency for […]

In Afghanistan on Monday, a suicide bomber dressed as a policeman infiltrated a police compound and detonated his payload, killing at least 25 officers of the law (according to late wire service reports). The bomber attacked in Tirin Kot, the capital of Oruzgan Province, from which Taliban leader Mulla Muhammad Omar hails. Chairman of the […]

Walter Posch writes in a guest op-ed for IC: Iran is generally viewed as to be one of the biggest challenges for the incoming administration. And for good reasons! After all previous administrations got their fingers burnt either way, by reaching out or by putting pressure on Tehran. The question what to do next depends […]

The big news out of the leaks from Iraq’s vote counters is that parties seeking a strong central government appear to have won big in the elections for provincial governments. There had been a split last fall. Some parties, such as the Kurdistan Alliance and the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, wanted Iraq to have […]