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  • Will Kadhimi remaining as PM avert renewed confrontation in Iraq?

    After a lull in tensions over the recent Shiite religious holiday of Arbaeen, the head of the Sadrist Movement is hinting at renewed escalation in Iraq. This comes as Muqtada Al-Sadr’s Shiite rivals have re-endorsed their prime minister candidate, Mohammed Shia’ Al-Sudani—the same move that sparked a Sadrist storming of the Iraqi parliament in late July. A high-ranking delegation is expected to visit Sadr amid hints of Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi remaining in office possibly averting a crisis.

  • Iranians in focus as pilgrims mass in Iraq for Arbaeen

    As millions of Shiite faithful are converging in Iraq for Arbaeen, controversy has erupted over Iranian participation in the pilgrimage. Sadrist Movement leader Muqtada Al-Sadr has singled out Iranians in a call for more rigid regulation of the annual event. At the same time, he has strongly condemned any “assault” on “Iranian brethren.” Meanwhile, the Islamic Republic is under fire at home for having encouraged mass participation in Arbaeen without apparent sufficient preparation, compelling a temporary shutdown of border crossings.

  • Archeologists Discover Hundreds Of ‘desert Kites’ In Saudi Arabia, Iraq

    Archaeologists from the University of Oxford used satellite images to identify and map more than 350 monumental hunting structures, known as “desert kites,” in northern Saudi Arabia and southern Iraq. These "desert kites" are made of stone walls erected in the middle of the desert that can reach several miles, which converge on each other. In terms of size, the "heads" of kites can be over 300 feet wide, but the supporting walls (the "strings" of the kite) can be much longer. The archaeologists believe they were used to guide game such as gazelles to an area where they could be captured or killed. Some of these giant structures date back to 8,000 BC, during the Neolithic era.

  • Is Iraq on the brink of a new civil war?

    Whether Prime Minister Kadhimi can bring the dialogue to a successful conclusion is debatable. Unless Sadr agrees to join the talks, they will go nowhere; and so far, he has refused to do so. Simultaneously, Sadr’s strategy to reject any dialogue with his opponents unless they agree to his demands — if, indeed, this truly is a strategy rather than simply a series of emotive and instinctive decisions on his part — will at some point start to show diminishing returns.

  • Climate migration in Iraq’s south brings cities to crisis

    The United Nations describes Iraq as the fifth-most-vulnerable country to climate change. Temperatures have increased by 1.8 degrees Celsius (3.2 degrees Fahrenheit) in three decades, according to Berkeley Earth, well above the global average, and in the summers, the mercury now regularly hits 50 Celsius (122 Fahrenheit). The heat is burning crops and desiccating marshes. As upstream dams in Turkey and Iran weaken the flows of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, a salty tide is creeping north from the Persian Gulf, poisoning the land — and the jobs it once created.

  • Attacks on major Iraqi gasfield drive out U.S. contractors

    A series of rocket attacks on a gasfield in northern Iraq has sent the U.S. contractors working on its expansion packing, dealing a blow to the Kurdish region's hopes of boosting its revenues and offering a small alternative to Russian gas. The project to expand the Khor Mor field operated by Pearl Consortium, majority-owned by Abu Dhabi's Dana Gas (DANA.AD) and its affiliate Crescent Petroleum, was suspended at the end of June after three rocket attacks.

  • Saudi Arabia urges Iraq’s political parties to peacefully address people’s demands

    Saudi Arabia urged all political parties in Iraq to resort to peaceful solutions to address the demands of the Iraqi people after clashes in Baghdad killed at least 23 people, the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported on Tuesday.

  • Iraq’s violence reflects an enduring dysfunction

    “The Iranian brand has suffered especially among the Arab youth, particularly among Shiite youth” in the region, said Randa Slim of the Middle East Institute during a Tuesday webinar. It’s a brand, she added, “of failed governance, of civil wars, of associating with groups that have killed civil society actors.”

  • Iraq’s Sadr declares ‘final retirement’ as street politics escalates

    As for the rift between Sadr and Haeri, it appears to be renewing focus on the former’s alleged ambitions to lead the Najaf-based Marjaiya—a centuries-old Shiite collegial institution that brings together top religious scholars. Indeed, while Haeri has directed his followers to “obey” Khamenei, the Sadrist Movement is left without a supreme religious authority. Moreover, as some Iraqi observers have pointed out, many younger Sadrists do not follow Haeri.

  • Will oil dispute with Baghdad shift dynamics within Iraqi Kurdistan?

    In Iraq, the federal government and the authorities in the Kurdistan region are locked in a serious and multipronged dispute over the country’s oil and natural gas resources. The drama is playing out both in the courtroom and via attacks on sites associated with the energy industry. The dispute has the potential to bring Iraqi Kurdistan’s ruling parties—the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the rival Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK)—closer together. But it could also drive them further apart, with the PUK developing a separate relationship with Baghdad.