Political & Social Issues

On March 17, Iraqi President Barham Salih appointed Adnan Al-Zurfi, a member of the Council of Representatives and former governor of Najaf, to be the new prime minister. This is the president’s second attempt to replace Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi, who resigned in November 2019 and is currently presiding nominally over a caretaker government, though he has delegated all hi

Adnan al Zurfi has 30 days to form government Shiite groups already opposed to his appointment Previous candidate failed to win parliament's vote of confidence Dubai — Iraq's Prime Minister designate Adnan al Zurfi is hamstrung by Shiite opposition to his nomination and possible recession in OPEC's second-largest oil producer reeling from the coronavirus epidemic and t

Allawi’s cabinet failure may indicate growing Iraqi agency at Iran’s expense, but the path toward political stability remains tortuous and foggy. On March 2, Iraqi prime minister-designate Mohammed Tawfiq Allawi stepped down after failing to gain sufficient parliamentary support for his proposed cabinet, putting President Barham Salih on the constitutional clock for designat

Congress and the Trump administration should privately agree to some ground rules for timing deterrent strikes on truly high-value targets, while quietly deploying more force-protection assets like Patriot missiles. In the early hours of Friday, U.S. and British aircraft conducted multiple airstrikes on the missile storage sites of the Iraqi militia group Kataib Hezbollah (

Early elections remain the best prescription for getting the country back on track. By Bobby Ghosh A month ago, when Mohammed Tawfik Allawi was nominated to the prime ministership of Iraq, I predicted he wouldn’t last long. Turns out, I was wildly optimistic. After four weeks of flailing efforts to form a cabinet, culminating in two failed attempts to get parliament to