SULAIMANIYA - Iraq's much-awaited recent power-sharing deal signifies a shift of influence on Iraqi politics away from the U.S. and its regional allies to domestic Iraqi political actors, most notably the Kurds, and eastward to Iran. In a matter of days,...
In the run-up to Iraq's parliamentary elections next week, the once-united Kurds are not only suffering deep fissures but are expected to lose their privileged kingmaker position after the polls. This lack of unity coupled with the rise of several strong coalitions in...
If there were any doubts about what exactly U.S. President Barack Obama meant when he warned Iran of "growing consequences" during his State of the Union address last month, they seem to be dispelled by recent statements from top administration officials,...
The recent expansion of U.S. missile defense systems in the Persian Gulf just days after President Barack Obama warned Iran of "growing consequences" if it did not accept the West's conditions over its nuclear program signals a possible change of approach by...
When U.S. President Barack Obama announced his plan last week to pull out all U.S. combat troops from Iraq by September 2010, the news did not generate much enthusiasm among Iraqi Kurds. A simple math operation reveals the reasons behind the Kurds' anxiety – add...
Kurds are divided over a security pact between Iraq and the US, approved by a large majority in the Iraqi Parliament Thursday, in what appears to be a potential heavy blow to their major gains since the US-led invasion of the country in 2003. Despite the international...
Tensions between Kurds and the Iraqi government over disputed territory have heightened recently, raising fears that they might lead to ethnic clashes between Kurds and Arabs at a time when the war-torn country is slowly recovering from years of sectarian violence...
Iraqi parliamentarians are increasingly concerned that they are being left out of talks between Iraqi and U.S. officials over a strategic deal to determine the future relationship between the two countries, at a time when the U.S. Congress failed to include a...
HAJI OMARAN (Iraq-Iran border) - Sixty-year-old Khadijah Hama Khan has had to flee home again. Nothing new. "All our life we have been on the run," she says. This time she had to flee Iranian shelling on her border village. It was not easy; she injured her...
ARBIL - The deadly attack on the Yazidi minority in northern Iraq earlier this month is expected to worsen ethnic and sectarian tensions. The suicide bombings in Kahtaniya and al-Jazeera villages in the northern Nineveh province of Iraq Aug. 14 left more than 400 dead...
