The Americans Are Gone. Will Iraq’s Militias Disarm?
On September 30, the US completed its military withdrawal from Iraq, ending a 12-year-long mission to combat ISIS that began in 2014. The date was also meant to be the deadline for disarming the largely Iranian-backed militias known as the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), but Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi has now pushed that cutoff back to June 30, 2027. MEI Distinguished Diplomatic Fellow Amb. (ret.) Robert S. Ford joins hosts Alistair Taylor and Matthew Czekaj to discuss what the US military withdrawal means for Iraqi security and the nature of the bilateral relationship going forward. They also speak about what it will take for Baghdad to bring the PMF militias to heel, and how Iraq may navigate the post-Iran war era.
Jordan’s Economy Weathers Iran War’s Shocks and Finds New Opportunities
In the summer of 2003, King Abdullah II told Bloomberg Jordan sits “between Iraq and a hard place,” a play on words designed to describe the kingdom’s challenging environment to an American audience amid the US-led Iraq war to the east and the lingering Palestinian-Israeli conflict to the west. Jordan is grappling with a much “harder place” today.
Proponents of the war with Iran have taken recent increases in crude-oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz as proof that the US strategy is finally working. President Trump is so confident in this that he recently rejected a seven-day plan, set forward by Iran’s foreign ministry, to end the war and open the strait. The United States is “winning tremendously,” Trump boasted.
Top Iranian Lawmaker Hails Quds Force’s Subversive Activities in Iraq and Syria
Chairman of the Iranian Parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Alaeddin Boroujerdi has commended Iranian Quds Force Commander Qassem Soleimani’s “important” role in regional conflicts.
Concerns in Iran over Trump’s Possible I.R.G.C. Designation
The media and legal experts in Iran have already begun examining the implications a potential decision by the Trump administration to designate the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (I.R.G.C.) as a terrorist entity. Tabnak, an outlet affiliated with former I.R.G.C.
After boycotting parliamentary elections in 2012 and 2013, the Kuwaiti Muslim Brotherhood’s political wing, Hadas, ran their candidates in last year’s snap election. Four out of five of the party’s candidates won, bringing Hadas back into Kuwait’s 50-member National Assembly.
Iran Tasks Basij to Expand the War on Information and Smother Social Media
Iran’s Deputy Attorney General Abdolsamad Khoramabadi has announced that his office has tasked the Basij organization to take a leading role in cracking down on the country’s cyberspace.
I.R.G.C. Continues to Incite Houthi Attacks against Saudi Arabia
The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (I.R.G.C.) media outlets continue to justify and encourage attacks by Yemeni Houthi rebels against Saudi Arabia. I.R.G.C.-affiliated Fars News Agency, for example, ran a number of news stories and commentaries today glorifying the Houthis’ latest attacks against Saudi military targets, including a recent attack targeting a Saudi warship and a scud missile that the Houthis claimed hit a military base near the Saudi capital.
Iran's Regime Intensifies Crackdown on Innocent Iranians Traveling Home from West
An Iranian scientist who worked for a Belgian university has been threatened with the death penalty in Iran, the Amnesty International reported on February 7. Dr. Ahmadreza Djalali, a resident of Sweden and a professor at a Belgian university, has been detained in Iran since last April.
Khamenei’s Insincere “Clemency” ahead of Revolution Day
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has agreed to pardon or commute the sentences of 631 Iranian convicts, the Iranian media reports. The “clemency” was suggested by Iran’s Judiciary Chief Ayatollah Sadegh Amoli Larijani on the occasion of a Shiite religious event and ahead of the anniversary of Iran’s 1979 revolution. The convicts were mostly from Iran’s revolutionary courts, the Judiciary Organization of the Armed Forces and the State Discretionary Punishment Organization.
Afghan Official Says Iran Is Fueling Sectarian Tension in Western Provinces
The BBC Persian reports that Iran has significantly expanded its ideological, cultural and economic sphere of influence in Afghanistan’s western province of Nimroz and is inflaming sectarian tension in the province.
Harsh I.R.G.C. Attack on Turkey in Midst of Syria Talks
Mohsen Rezaei, a top commander in the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (I.R.G.C.), has waged an exceptionally tough attack on Turkey and accused Ankara to be the minion of the United States in Washington’s “dangerous game in the Middle East.”
Iran Hardliners Urge Escalation in Houthi Attacks on Saudi Arabia
Hardline Iranian media are enthusiastically speculating that the conflict in Yemen will soon enter a more dangerous phase with the intensification in the use of missiles by the Yemeni rebels.
The oldest peer-reviewed publication dedicated to the study of the modern Middle East, MEI’s flagship journal covers politics, society, and culture in the region.
