Iraq

Dr Mustafa Fetouri | – US President Donald Trump had to sneak in to Iraq, a supposed US ally, arriving at the Ein Al-Assad airbase for an unannounced visit on 26 December. Not a single Iraqi official was there to welcome him. Instead, Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdel-Mahdi angrily snubbed him, refusing to travel to […]

Featured

How Bush’s War on Iraq Produced Trumpism, Instability, Refugees and Climate Catastrophe

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – George W. Bush is being rehabilitated in the age of Trump, as the second worst president in American history is burnished by the absolute worst. Much that is wrong with politics in the Trump era, however, was foreshadowed by Bush. It was Bush who practiced the Big Lie to take […]

Iraq

Grand Ayatollah Sistani Slaps down Trump: You may not use Iraq against its Neighbors

contributors

Beirut (al-Akhbar) – Iraq’s supreme Shiite religious authority, Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, issued a sharp rebuke to US president Donald Trump during a meeting with the head of the United Nations mission in Iraq, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert. Sistani said that “Iraq aspires to have good and balanced relations with all neighboring countries, avoiding interfering in their internal […]

Donald Trump

Baghdad: Calls to Expel US Troops from Iraq after Trump said They spy on Iran

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Trump’s assertion that he intends to keep US troops in Iraq to spy on Iran has produced a firestorm of protest and controversy in Baghdad. Trump also committed the faux pas of saying the US had constructed an enormous military base in Iraq, which contradicts the Iraqi government’s line that […]

Iraq

Party of Shiite Cleric Muqtada al-Sadr tables Bill to expel US Troops from Iraq

Middle East Monitor

Muqtada al-Sadr’s Sairoon Bloc, which dominated Iraqi legislative polls last year, has submitted a bill to parliament that would, if passed, require all foreign military personnel to leave the country within one year, Anadolu Agency reports. At a Friday press conference in Baghdad, Sairoon Chairman Sabah Assadi said the proposed “Law against Foreign Military Deployments […]

Iran

Iran steals Trump’s Thunder: ‘We defeated ISIL & We’ll Rebuild Iraq’

AFP

Karbala (AFP) – Iranian firms should have a key role in rebuilding Iraq after the fight against the Islamic State group, Tehran’s top diplomat said Wednesday in a rare meeting with Iraqi paramilitary units. Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif spoke in Iraq’s holy city of Karbala to commanders of the Hashed al-Shaabi, which is dominated […]

Iran

Iraq welcomes Iran Foreign Minister after Pompeo, denounces US Sanctions as “Illegal”

AFP

Baghdad, Iraq | AFP | – Iraqi Foreign Minister Mohammad Ali al-Hakim (R) receives his Iranian counterpart, Mohammad Javad Zarif, in Baghdad on January 13, 2019 Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif met with his Iraqi counterpart in Baghdad on Sunday for wide-ranging talks, including on US sanctions against Tehran. The visit came just days […]

Iraq

Israeli general sees possible threat from Iraq as Iran’s clout grows

Middle East Monitor

Iran could use its growing clout in Iraq to turn it into a springboard for attacks against Israel, the chief of Israeli military intelligence said on Monday, reports Reuters. Israel sees the spread of Tehran’s influence in the region as a growing threat and has carried out scores of air strikes in civil war-torn Syria […]

Featured

Shiite Parties Decry Trump’s ‘Arrogant’ and ‘Disdainful’ Visit to Iraq, Ignoring Iraqis

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Trump’s surprise visit to a US military base in Iraq on the day after Christmas has provoked a strong critique among some Iraqis, who mind that Trump slipped in and out to visit the Ain al-Assad base in al-Anbar Province but did not bother to meet with any Iraqi officials. […]