Research & Commentary Results

In this week’s Monday Briefing, MEI experts Charles Lister, Bilal Y. Saab, Eran Etzion, Gonul Tol, Paul Salem, and Randa Slim provide analysis on recent and upcoming events including the Syrian-Iranian downing of an Israeli fighter jet, the critical crossroads of U.S. and Turkey relations, Rex Tillerson’s upcoming visit to Lebanon, and Iraqi reconstruction plans.

A series of devastating terror attacks orchestrated by the Afghan Taliban and the Haqqani network in the past two weeks have unnerved both the United States and Afghanistan. Visibly upset over the lack of success of his recently announced strategy on Afghanistan, President Donald Trump has declared that “We don’t want to talk to the Taliban.

A senior official of Harakat al-Nujaba, an Iranian-supported militia group fighting in Iraq and Syria, issued a threat against the US military in Iraq and called on Washington to pull out its troops from the country, the Iranian media reported. “We will never forget the atrocities of the United States in our country and we still have not settled a score with America,” Nasr al-Shamri, an executive director of the group said in a live interview with Al-Furat TV in Iraq.

With ISIS militarily defeated, Iran’s militia allies in Iraq are increasingly threatening violence against American troops and calling for the US withdrawal from the country. On February 7, Kata’ib Hezbollah, an Iranian-supported unit within Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Force (PMF), issued a statement, warning that its fighters will begin to militarily confront American troops “at any moment” if Washington decides to keep a long-term military footprint in Iraq.

Iraj Masjedi, Tehran’s ambassador to Baghdad, met with Ammar al-Hakim, the leader of Iraq’s National Alliance, to discuss the latest security and political developments in Iraq.

The leader of a prominent Iraqi militia group has called on the American troops in Iraq to leave the country.

The secretary general of Harakat al-Nujaba, an Iranian-sponsored Iraqi militia group fighting in Syria and Iraq, alleges that the US military has targeted the organization’s forces in Iraq, Lebanon’s al-Mayadeen and Iran’s

Lebanese judicial authorities have issued an arrest warrant for Qais al-Khazali, the leader of Iran-backed Iraqi militia group called Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq, Iran’s Fars News Agency reports. Quoting Lebanese sources, Fars added that the Lebanese Army and General Security Directorate have also ordered all relevant authorities to arrest the Iraqi militia commander if he reenters Lebanon. They allege that Khazali last year had entered Lebanon illegally.

The deputy head of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces has said that, with the military defeat of ISIS, the paramilitary forces will now play a key role in the security sector, Fars News Agency, an outlet affiliated with the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) reported.

In this week’s Monday Briefing, MEI experts Paul Salem, Robert S. Ford, Randa Slim, and Jonathan M. Winer provide analysis on recent and upcoming events including Vice President Mike Pence’s trip to the Middle East, Turkey’s assault on Afrin, Iraq’s upcoming elections, and the U.N. humanitarian aid plan for Libya.

Read the full article on The National Interest.

While Iran’s military involvement in regional conflicts and support for militant groups often make headlines, Tehran’s sophisticated soft power strategies aimed at promoting the Islamic Republic’s ideological and political goals in the region are largely overlooked. The establishment of Islamic Azad Universities in major Syrian and Iraqi cities and the expansion of its main branch in Lebanon is one example of how Tehran uses soft power tools to expand its sphere of influence across the region.

Fittingly for someone who divides her time between two river cities, DC-born, Baghdad-bred, and now London-based filmmaker Maysoon Pachachi says she is a woman who “lives on a bridge.”

“I’ve been a stranger everywhere I’ve lived,” says Pachachi, now 70, whose documentaries have captured life in Gazan refugee camps, downtown Beirut and medieval Cairo. “I’ve moved around my whole life, but I can adapt and fit in wherever I am.”

The head of a prominent Iranian-backed Iraqi militia group has called for the exit of American troops from Iraq, Iran’s Fars News Agency reported today. “We have repeatedly heard American government officials saying that Washington wants to remain in Iraq after ISIS for the long haul. This is not something that we want to allow to happen and is totally acceptable to us,” Qais al-Khazali, the secretary-general of Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq, said during a speech in the Iraqi city of Najaf.

Major General Yahya Rahim Safavi, senior advisor to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on military affairs, has expressed the concern that Iran’s interests in Iraq could be imperiled if the upcoming Iraqi parliamentary elections change the balance of power in