More than five months after elections, Iraq’s new government is taking shape. With the announcement of 14 cabinet picks and their parliamentary confirmation, Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi can begin governing. He has his work cut out for him. Fifteen years after the U.S. invasion, Iraqis remain frustrated at poor or inadequate government services, corruption and the seeming im
Read More
Last month, protests broke out in Basra after the Iranian government cut one-third of the total electricityused by Iraq’s second-largest city. Demonstrations against power shortages and other longstanding grievances such as unemployment quickly spread throughout Iraq’s Shia-majority south, leading Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to dismiss his minister of electricity. Ir
Read More
The almost-done Siemens deal in Iraq is much more than a business coup. It's an example of German soft power hard at work that could have an impact on everything from immigration and a culture of corruption, to how the next Iraqi government is formed. Have you thought about asking Siemens for help? Source: AP “Thank you Germany! Thank you Germany,” my colleague Qassim
Read More
BASRA, Iraq — American and Iranian officials have taken unusually visible roles in trying to influence the makeup of the new Iraqi government, but both sides have so far come up short, failing to place their allies in key positions. Since Iraq held national elections in May, White House envoy Brett McGurk and Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani, chief of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard
Read More
Since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003, the name of Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the Grand Shiʿi cleric, has come to prominence. Sistani emerged as a key player in the processes that constituted and sustained the post-2003 Iraqi political order, as manifested in key events such as the writing of constitution or the mobilization against the Islamic State (I.S.). Neverthel
Read More