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Iraq: Sadr withdraws support for protests in a political power play
Thousands of Iraqis demonstrate in the heart of Baghdad on January 24, 2020 to demand the ouster of US troops from the country.
  • Commentary
  • Iraq: Sadr withdraws support for protests in a political power play

    So far, disproportionate violence by security forces against the civilian protesters has led to the exact opposite of what they sought to achieve, causing protesters’ numbers to swell.

    January 27, 2020

    Lebanese oligarchs approve technocratic shadow government
    Lebanon's President Michel Aoun (L) meets with prime minister designate Hassan Diab at the presidential palace in Baabda, east of the capital Beirut, on January 21, 2020.
  • Commentary
  • Lebanese oligarchs approve technocratic shadow government

    The new government is politically aligned with the pro-Hezbollah and pro-Syrian axis in Lebanon, and is very unlikely to drum up international and regional support.

    January 21, 2020

    Cease-fires in Idlib and Libya as Turkey looks to buy time
    Russian President Vladimir Putin (L) and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (R) attend the opening ceremony of the TurkStream on January 08, 2020 in Istanbul, Turkey.
  • Commentary
  • Cease-fires in Idlib and Libya as Turkey looks to buy time

    It is increasingly the case that the Russian-Turkish decisions on Idlib or Syria need to be understood as part of a broader Russian-Turkish partnership.

    January 13, 2020

    Escalation with Iran now dominates 2020
    A drone photo shows thousands of Iranians attend the funeral ceremony of Qasem Soleimani, commander of Iranian Revolutionary Guards' Quds Forces, who was killed in a U.S. drone airstrike in Iraq, in Tehran, Iran on January 06, 2020.
  • Commentary
  • Escalation with Iran now dominates 2020

    Trump has taken such a forward-leaning and aggressive position now that he has set himself, and the U.S., in a conflict trap that he might not be able to defuse.

    January 6, 2020

    Iraq is right where it doesn’t want to be
    Mourners surround a car carrying the coffins of Iranian military commander Qasem Soleimani and Iraqi paramilitary chief Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, killed in a US air strike, during their funeral procession in Kadhimiya, a Shiite pilgrimage district of Baghdad, on January 4, 2020.
  • Commentary
  • Iraq is right where it doesn’t want to be

    While yesterday’s vote in the Iraqi Council of Representatives on a decision to remove U.S. forces is not legally binding, it creates dynamics inside the U.S. and Iraq that make a U.S. decision to remove its forces all but inevitable.

    January 6, 2020