The US-Israeli war against Iran is already expanding into Lebanon with an Israeli ground invasion of southern Lebanon, but Reuters is now reporting that the Trump Administration is keen to drag Syria into the conflict as well, encouraging its Islamist government to...
Iraq’s Coordination Framework is still putting forward Nouri al-Maliki as its candidate for prime minister, despite President Trump loudly and repeatedly demand he be withdrawn. The US is now reportedly setting a deadline of Friday, February 27, to end the candidacy...
Former Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s candidacy to return to the position was meant to have been vetoed last month by President Trump, who denounced Maliki as “insane” and threatened to withhold all US support if he returned to office. There was talk of a...
Once and possibly future Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s candidacy is increasingly in doubt this weekend, with reports that President Trump’s demand he not be allowed to return to office increasing the possibility that the Coordination Framework bloc may...
One of the early consequences of the Saudi invasion of Yemen was that the local affiliate, called al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), seized substantial territory in the south. AQAP is no longer seen as nearly so high profile, carrying out occasional attacks on...
Former Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has very publicly rejected President Trump’s demand he be prevented from returning to power, declaring it “blatant American interference in Iraq’s internal affairs,” and a violation of Iraqi sovereignty. Iraq held its most...
If you put aside the continued fighting in several parts of northern and eastern Syria, and the mounting humanitarian crisis among civilians displaced by the fighting, the ceasefire between the Syrian government and the Kurdish SDF is holding. The tribal-backed...
Iraq’s Coordination Framework has nominated Nouri al-Maliki as their leader to attempt to form the next Iraqi government after November’s election. Maliki was Iraq’s premier from 2006 to 2014, and has led the State of Law bloc since then, trying to return to the...
Iraq had a parliamentary election in late 2025, with the results ratified in mid-December. This, as usual, led to a scramble to try to form a majority coalition out of a large number of political parties that gained meaningful seats in a situation where the plurality...
The US has effectively declared an end to their military support for the Syrian Kurdish SDF is causing no small amount of resentment in the Kurdish community, which after a long-term partnership feels that they are watching a “betrayal” in real time, as Syrian...
