Iraq

The Middle East Dialogue, a regional Track 1.5 group in which officials and non-officials from the region and beyond meet to discuss current issues in their personal capacities, met May 12-13 in Malta. Read the full report (PDF).

Executive Summary

Iraqi Kurdistan’s democratic future and stability is at risk, and one party and family is especially closely linked to the crisis. In recent years, the Barzani family and the Kurdistan Democratic Party (K.D.P.) have consolidated power while displaying indifference to rule of law when facing critics or uncooperative minorities. This creeping autocracy should urgently concern those hoping to see a stable new democracy in a troubled region. On September 25, the Kurdish region is due to hold its independence referendum.

In this week’s Monday Briefing, MEI experts Yousef Munayyer, Paul Salem, Ahmad Majidyar, Alex Vatanka, and Gonul Tol provide analysis on recent and upcoming events including the upcoming trip by the U.S. delegation headed by Jared Kushner to Israel/Palestine, Iraq’s anti-ISIS operation in Tal Afar, President Trump’s upcoming announcement on U.S. military strategy in Afghanistan, Iran’s efforts to find a role in China’s One Belt, One Road project, and Turkey’s rocky relations with Germany.

Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces (P.M.F.) commanders say their paramilitary forces are actively participating in the recently-launched military operation to liberate the city of Tal Afar from the Islamic State, the Iranian media report. The Badr Organization, a powerful Iranian-supported P.M.U. group, announced on Sunday that its forces have captured “mountainous regions” in northwestern parts of Tal Afar. A report in Fars News Agency, which is affiliated with the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, said P.M.F.

Regional Arab states and their Western allies are attempting to divide the Iraqi Shiites and drive a wedge between Tehran and Baghdad to alter the balance of power in Iraq, warns an article in Tasnim News Agency, an Iranian outlet affiliated with the Isl

The Iraqi Popular Mobilization Force (P.M.F.) will deploy 20,000 fighters to participate in the upcoming ground operation to liberate the city of Tal Afar from the Islamic State, P.M.F. Spokesman Ahmed al-Assadi revealed today. In an interview with Lebanon’s al-Mayadeen TV channel, Assadi said Haider al-Abadi, the prime minister and commander-in-chief of the Iraqi Armed Forces, will announce the start date for the operation.

Read the full article on Foreign Affairs.

Iranian media outlets, analysts and politicians warn that Saudi Arabia and its regional allies are cultivating close ties with Muqtada al-Sadr and other Iraqi Shiite clerics and political leaders to roll back Iran’s influence in post-Islamic State Iraq and the broader region. While some suggest that Riyadh’s outreach to Iraqi Shiites is part of the kingdom’s efforts to defuse tension with Tehran, others see it as a plot to isolate Iran. At the center of this debate is al-Sadr, who recently visited Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates and is scheduled to travel to Egypt soon.

Harakat al-Nujaba, an Iranian-supported Iraqi militia group, has announced that it will support the Lebanese Hezbollah in the fight against the “occupying Zionist regime” of Israel, Fars News Agency, which is affiliated with the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (I.R.G.C.) reports.

A commander of the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces (P.M.F.) has said that the United States, Turkey and the leadership of the Iraqi Kurdistan are pressuring the Baghdad government not to allow the paramilitary forces to participate in upcoming military operation to liberate the city of Tal Afar, Fars News Agency reported. Jawad al-Talibawi, a spokesman for the armed wing of Iranian-backed Asaib Ahl al-Haq, added that P.M.F. units have received “orders” forbidding them from taking part in the operation.

On Monday, the Islamic State claimed it had killed scores of Iraqi troops and captured one soldier in an ambush near the al-Tanf border-crossing along the Iraqi-Syrian border.  Kata’ib Sayyid al-Shuhada (K.S.S.), an Iranian-backed unit of the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces (P.M.F.), however, blamed U.S. air strikes for its losses and vowed revenge.

The spokesperson for the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces (P.M.F.) has announced that the paramilitary forces will participate in the upcoming military operation against the Islamic State in Tal Afar despite regional concerns, Iran’s Fars News Agency reported today. “In the operation to liberate Tal Afar, all Hashd al-Shaabi forces, the Iraqi army, the federal police and also counterterrorism and rapid-reaction forces will participate,” Ahmed al-Assadi was quoted as saying.

The commander of an Iranian-backed Iraqi paramilitary unit has accused the American troops of colluding with the Islamic State and killing dozens of Iraqi militiamen and Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (I.R.G.C.) officers along the Iraqi-Syrian border last night – a charge the U.S.-led coali

A senior official of Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq, an Iran-supported militia unit within Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces (P.M.F.), has threatened violence against the leadership of the Iraqi Kurdistan, according to Fars News Agency, which is affiliated with the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (I.R.G.C.).