Iraq

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Israeli-Iranian War of 2025 has put Iraq in an extremely difficult situation. The country’s Shiite majority sympathizes with Iran and with the Palestinians, and resents Israel’s use of Iraqi airspace to attack their Shiite neighbor. On Sunday the Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Soudani met with Thomas Seiler, the […]

Climate Crisis

Iraq’s Climate Crisis is a Human Rights Crisis

Human Rights Watch

Sarah Sanbar Iraq Researcher, Middle East and North Africa Division ( Human Rights Watch ) – By any metric, Iraq’s environment is under severe pressure. Lakes, rivers, and marshlands are shrinking, and in some cases entirely disappearing. Sandstorms are increasing in frequency and severity, resulting in hospitalizations and the grounding of flights. Decades of conflict-related […]

Arab World

The Making of the Modern Middle East: Juan Cole on History, Politics, and Today’s Turmoil – Tamooda Interview

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Juan Cole interviewed by Martin Asser at Tamooda : “The Making of the Modern Middle East: Juan Cole on History, Politics, and Today’s Turmoil” According to LinkedIn, “ TAMOODA is a new digital, independent, liberal, and secular platform in the Arab world for opinion. It is is a non-profit initiative […]

Egypt

From the Tigris and Euphrates to the Nile: The Middle East’s unresolved Water Disputes

Global Voices

Written byRaseef22 This post by Mohamed Yousry, was first published in Arabic by Raseef 22* on February 15, 2025. This edited version was translated into English and published on Global Voices as part of a content-sharing agreement. ( Global Voices ) – The West Asia and North Africa region is facing a water scarcity crisis. […]

Iraq

What was the Sykes-Picot Agreement, and Why does it still affect the Middle East Today?

The Conversation

By Andrew Thomas, Deakin University (The Conversation) – Some national borders are determined by natural phenomena like seas, mountains and rivers. Most, however, are created by people. This means the creation of borders is often a political exercise – usually informed by the interests of those who create them, not the local populations to whom […]

Featured

Shiite Iraqi PM to Türkiye: Baghdad will not be a Mere Spectator as Sunni Radicals take Syria

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammad Shia’ al-Sudani called Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday and read him the riot act about the lightning conquests in northern Syria of Sunni rebels. Al-Sudani cautioned that “Iraq will not be a mere spectator to the grave repercussions of the events taking place in […]

Featured

Iraqi Shiite Militias Pledge Aid to Lebanese Hezbollah, Target Israel with Cruise Missiles, Drones

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Tamim al-Hasan at the al-Mada newspaper in Baghdad reports that at a time when an imminent announcement is expected of the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq, Iraqi paramilitary groups have declared their solidarity with Lebanon’s Hezbollah in the struggle with Israel. Moreover, they are putting their drones where their […]

Iraq

The Kurdish Town of Kocho is the ‘Guernica’ of the 21st Century

Ibrahim Al-Marashi

( Rudaw.net) – A decade ago, on August 3, 2014, the Islamic State (ISIS) conquered the village of Kocho (Kojo) in the Sinjar (Shingal) area of northern Iraq. On August 15, it began massacring several hundred men and elderly women of the Yazidi community, an ethno-religious minority in Iraq and Syria, after they failed to […]

Featured

Butcher of Gaza Netanyahu Repeatedly Lied to Congress about Iraqi “Nukes,” and now Wants US War on Iran

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is a master of misdirection, the technique master illusionists use to divert the viewer’s attention from the trick and to pull the wool over their eyes. He uses his slick American accent, his bulging eyes, his rhetorical flourishes, his maniacal certainty, to fool people whenever […]