Patrick Cockburn Iraqi security and pro-Iranian paramilitary forces are shooting into crowds of protesters in a bid to drive them from the centre of Baghdad and end six…
Gilbert Achar When in late 2018 the people of Sudan took to the streets demanding an end to Omar al-Bashir’s authoritarian rule, this immediately triggered memories of 2010,…
Robert Fisk Revolutions are like electricity. An electric shock of the most unexpected kind. The victims think at first it must be a powerful wasp sting. Then they…
Zêdan Xelef, translated by David Shook and Bryar Bajalan Non-Broadcast News Today a fire broke out in two tents The families shouted, the children cried and ran bare-assed…
Patrick Cockburn Iraq is poised at a turning point in its modern history as its people wait to see if the government curfew and close down of the…
The current unrest in Iraq began a week ago after a prominent general was removed from his post: Lieutenant General Abdul Wahab al-Saadi was the great Iraqi military…
Celebrated Iraqi playwright and actor Yusuf al-Ani (1927-2016) is at the center of the latest issue of the Journal of Contemporary Iraq and the Arab World, which has…
Mustafa Habib. The process to install new governors in Basra and Baghdad is proving almost as chaotic as the formation of the federal government. In Basra last weekend,…
Hamidreza Azizi Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi issued a decree July 1 obliging the overwhelmingly pro-Iran Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) to fully integrate into the Iraqi armed…
Adrian Searle. Whitechapel Gallery, London: The Beatles play a presidential funeral while Nimrud’s Palace is rebuilt with sardine cans in this angry, thought-provoking journey though time. Michael Rakowitz’s…
Bob Dreyfuss. Here’s the foreign policy question of questions in 2019: Are President Donald Trump, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, all…
Jeffrey St. Claire. At the close of the first Gulf War, Saddam Hussein was denounced as a ferocious villain for ordering his retreating troops to destroy Kuwaiti oil…
Bijan Khajehpour. The reimposition of US secondary sanctions has compelled Tehran to look for ways to reduce their negative impact. According to Iranian officials, one of the strategies is…
Cyril Widdershoven. The U.S. sanctions on Iran are not biting yet, as global oil markets are well supplied. In the coming weeks, Iranian crude volumes should show a…
Patrick Cockburn. Changes of government in Iraq are often fiercely disputed and frequently violent. When the monarchy was overthrown in 1958, the young King Faisal II was machine gunned in…
Maysam Behravesh. The messages from Tehran are stark. On October 1, Iranian forces fired six missiles at Daesh positions in eastern Syria. The weapons landed within three miles…
Nadia Murad. The slave market opened at night. We could hear the commotion downstairs where militants were registering and organising, and when the first man entered the room,…
Romy Roynard. The young Yazidi woman, the victim of horrific crimes, has spoken out worldwide in her campaign to end sexual assault as a weapon of war. Nadia…
Esen Uslu. The Turkish army of the modern republican era has never withdrawn from any piece of land it has occupied on whatever pretext. A former British army…
Patrick Cockburn. Posted on ZCommunications September 25, 2018. An Iraqi joke says that their country must have the most environmental government in the world since the same political leaders are…
Translated by Sinan Antoon Posted by Jadaliyya Dream I dreamt of a field of butterflies Where a child is jumping in a meadow of flowers A butterfly embroidered…
Darya Najim and Krekar Mustafa. Posted on Alliance of Middle East Socialists August 2, 2018 Editor’s Note: Below we print an opinion article submitted by two Iraqi Kurdish…
Three Poems by Hero Kurda translated by Alana Marie Levinson-LaBrosse, Pshtewan Kamal Babakir and Shene Mohammed Posted on World Literature Today July 20§18. You in Me On the shore…
David Bacon. Posted on LobeLog May 30, 2018. The U.S. media quickly dismissed the results of Iraq’s national elections on May 12. Journalists were puzzled by what the…
Zachary Keckand Matthew Sparks. Posted on The National Interest May 28, 2018. Thirty-five years ago last month, a Hezbollah suicide bomber drove a delivery van packed with explosives…
Dan Glazebrook. Posted on Middle East Eye, May 4, 2018. The destruction of states such as Iraq, Syria, Libya, and Iran is about isolating Russia when its own…
Robert Fisk. Posted on Independent April 12, 2018 and ZNet April 14, 2018. Oh, the hypocrisy of it. The ignoble aims. The distraction. The outrageous lies and excuses….
Marcel Cartier. Posted on The Region on April 4, 2018. Powerful, sobering and heart-wrenching images are once again to be seen from the Yazidi heartland of Shengal, otherwise…
Michael Crowley and Bryan Bender. Posted on Politico on March 23, 2018. For the Donald Trump who preaches an “America First” foreign policy with little patience for international…
Ben Watson Posted on the Atlantic February 3, 2018. A strange and worrisome silence settled over Yemen’s capital city of Sanaa after Houthi rebels seized power in broad…
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