Creating new perspectives since 2009
Items by Nazli Tarzi
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As Iraqis fear another cholera outbreak the government is absent
An unquantifiable number of Iraqi towns, villages and encampments are flooded with wastewater following three days of fierce rain storms on Valentine’s Day last week. Heavy rainfall paralysed segments of the capital, Fallujah and Mosul, to name but a few of war torn towns affected. There was still cause for...
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The reconstruction of Iraq is no longer a priority for the US
Iraq’s troubled reconstruction timeline entered a new chapter as representatives from 70 states poured into Kuwait in attendance of The International Conference for the Reconstruction of Iraq, the first of its kind in the history of the Gulf and Arabian Peninsula. The fact that Iraq’s IMF ranks at 164...
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Iraqi dissident’s arrest sparks electrifying solidarity in response
Iraq’s southern province of Muthanna has been up in arms over the arrest of local celebrity dissident Basim Khazaal Khashan last Wednesday. An electrifying display of solidarity spilled onto the streets of Samawah, Amara and other cities, outraged by Khashan’s wrongful imprisonment and the erroneous application of Iraq’s Penal...
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Gunfire on university grounds signals a surge of tribal power
There was a time that I remember vividly in which videos of fierce gunfire exchanges within the grounds of Iraq’s neutral and protected spaces would elicit shock. In the years since the 2003 invasion, however, schools and hospitals have been controlled by various armed non-state actors, whose growth has...
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Clash of the Dawa Party titans
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi dreams of securing a second term in office, but will have to joust with his predecessor Nouri Al-Maliki for the job. What binds both men is more their unyielding faith and membership of the Shia Islamic Dawa Party, rather than the fact that each...
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Oprah built her talk shows around the hell Iraqis suffer today
A dazzling self-help guru, feminist and billionaire is the general view held of Oprah Winfrey worldwide. Rarely have her credentials been on trial as they were this week following online speculation prompted by her Golden Globes speech over whether she will run for president in 2020. In a move to...
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Black and white: Iraq’s ‘new’ enemy is nothing new
Wildly circulating rumours first published December last year posit the birth of a new armed Kurdish faction, dubbed, the “the bearers of White Flags” (WF). As the name suggests, their flag of choice is white and bears the face of a lion stencilled in black. “Mysterious militants raise new fears of...
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Abadi vows to protect Kurdish protesters against their autonomous rulers
For the fourth consecutive day, unrest has gripped Erbil, the largest city in Iraq’s semi-autonomous north. In Sulaymaniyah, protesters have been on the streets for six days, marching defiantly against their political leaders for dishonouring their promises. Disgruntled civil servants, teachers and students have voiced dissent — not for the...
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There are other agendas behind Iraq militia promises to liberate Jerusalem
According to a senior researcher at the Foreign Relations Bureau, “Everyone wants to polish their image using Palestine.” The London-based Iraqi opposition organisation’s Ahmad Mahmoud made his comment following US President Donald Trump’s formal recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel last week. Militias big and small have spoken...
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The independence gamble has misfired for Iraq's Kurds
The flare up between Baghdad and the Kurdish Region of Iraq (KRI) over the past two months has revealed that loyalty towards the capital comes first. The actions of the allies whom the Kurds once looked upon as reliable suggests that regional players have more to gain from a...
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Militias defend right to participate in Iraq's elections next year
Compared to Iraq, elections elsewhere in the world are relatively bland. The patterns of foreign meddling have long animated electoral cycles not only in Iraq, but also in neighbouring states. A date has finally been set for the next elections in the country: 15 May, 2018. It marks a first...
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Will Barzani's departure end his party’s monopoly over Kurdish polity?
President of the Kurdish Region of Iraq (KRI) Masoud Barzani is stepping down, but a month prior to his resignation he set in motion the impossible; Kurdistan’s bid for statehood. Overwhelming numbers voted “yes” in September’s referendum on independence in a move which defied Baghdad and its neighbours. The fallout, in...
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Iraq’s Sunnis adopt alternate stances on Kurdish referendum
Much of the furore surrounding Kurdistan’s leap towards independence has died down since last week. The results, similar to the reactionary positions adopted by Kurdistan’s neighbours, were as the crowds anticipated. They voted “yes” to independence but the victory has cost the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) control over its...
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Hezbollah flexes its muscles against Barzani
Live on Mayadeen’s “Hourly dialogue” programme, Iraqi Hezbollah Brigade spokesman Jaafar Al-Husseini fired scathing remarks against the President of the Kurdistan Regional Government, Masoud Barzani. Though only a non-state actor, the group’s reliable strategy of aggressive diplomacy reared its ugly head just days after votes were cast in Monday’s Kurdish...
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Will a former militia leader be Iraq’s next prime minister?
As the countdown to Iraq’s 2018 elections ticks away, post-war stakeholders are warming up for the parliamentary race ahead. Rumours about leading candidates, some of whom espouse not optimism but fear, are circulating. As battles against Daesh wind down, Iraqi militias are shuffling around and coalescing into smaller parties...
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The Palestinian ‘Daeshi’ is Iraq’s newest imagined threat
From the moment that Palestine fell under Israeli occupation in 1948, support for the Palestinians from the state and society in Iraq was nothing thing short of unwavering, but not any longer. Expressions of this solidarity and pan-Arab rhetoric have slipped away, substituted by discourse analogous to that voiced...
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Basra’s meltdown
The ongoing crisis in Basra province remains one of Iraq’s best kept secrets, with military operations in the north of the country diverting attention elsewhere. Basra’s prolonged energy crisis, power blackouts, drug epidemic, rubbish mismanagement and political misconduct have the province teetering on the brink. Making matters worse, provincial mayor...
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Iraq’s PMF militia coalition is hindering political cohesion
Born a little over three years ago Iraq’s quasi-political Popular Mobilisation Force (PMF) has grown unstoppably, much to the peril of Iraq’s political elite. Civic life has borne the brunt of uninterrupted PMF crimes, and the sanctimonious rhetoric that once shielded members from criticism is no longer persuasive. The ruling establishment...
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Caught between Washington, Riyadh and Tehran, will Sadr put Iraq first?
A self-confident Moqtada Al-Sadr, head of Iraq’s Sadrist bloc, arrived in Saudi Arabia on Sunday where he received a warm diplomatic reception few expected. Al-Sadr’s last appearance in Saudi, as cited by local news agencies, was in 2006 during an official visit to the Red Sea port city of Jeddah. Reactions,...
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Murder or suicide: Mystery shrouds death of Baghdad Air Force Club president
In the early hours of last Monday, the acting president of Baghdad’s Air Force Club, Bashir Fadhel Ahmadani, was found lying in a pool of his own blood in the kitchen of his Mansour home, west of the Iraqi capital. The body of Ahmadani’s wife and three children were also...
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Who to trust in Iraq: Sunnis or Shias
After a series of postponements, 150 political figures gathered in Baghdad’s Babylon Hotel yesterday to attend the National Conference, referred to locally as the “Sunni gathering”. The aims, according to Parliamentary Speaker Salim Al-Jabouri, are to reintegrate Iraq’s Sunni politicians into the existing political arena and reach a consensus on...