Iraqi Politics
Will Iraq’s Gridlocked Parliament Finally Elect a President?
The Council of Representatives of Iraq, the country’s beleaguered parliament, will meet on Thursday to elect a new president, according to the office of Iraqi parliament speaker Mohamed al-Halbousi—a move...
Iraqi Supreme Court Refuses to Intervene in Deepening Political Crisis
The Supreme Judicial Council of Iraq, the country’s highest judicial body, announced on Sunday that it did not have the authority to unilaterally dissolve the Council of Representatives, the country’s...
Coercive Politics: Iran’s Proxies in Iraq Were Never in Trouble
In late 2021, Iraqi politics took a decisive and hopeful turn. The October election was a disaster for some of Iraq’s most malign actors. Their defeat at the ballot box...
America’s ‘Friends’ in Iraq Play U.S. Officials for Fools
A half-century ago, Secretary of State Henry Kissinger reconfigured the State Department to devalue regional expertise. As Robert Kaplan detailed in The Arabist, his masterful account of the American diplomats...
Iraqi Cleric Muqtada al-Sadr Floats Ban on Iraq-Israel Relations
Muqtada al-Sadr, the firebrand cleric whose namesake political party is the largest in Iraq’s parliament, announced on Saturday that his allied legislators would submit a bill for consideration that would...
The United States Must Stand Up to Barzani Blackmail in Iraq
On May 12, 2018, Iraqis went to the polls to elect a new government. Then, as now, political maneuvering consumed months as Iraqis sought first to select a speaker, then...
Violence Mounts in Iraq as Sadrists Attempt To Form a Government
Iraq’s new leadership, dominated by the “Sadrist Movement” electoral alliance, faced its first major security challenge as a wave of sectarian violence swept through Baghdad this past week. This surge...