Mazlum Abdi, commander of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), has said he is ready to travel to Turkey and meet with jailed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) founder Abdullah Öcalan, as Turkish lawmakers plan to make the first parliamentary visit to his island prison under a new peace initiative.
Under a golden autumn sun, Abdallah Ibrahim harvests fistfuls of hard, green olives with evident delight.
“We were denied this pleasure for the last 14 years,” he sighs.
Barrel bombs and constant shelling caused his family and most of the residents of his village, Al Ghassaniyeh, to flee during the second year of the Syrian civil war, which began in 2011. Some stayed, even as Sunni Islamist rebel groups moved in — but they too left after the priest in this historically Christian village was killed.
Recent history in Afghanistan and Iraq teaches that rebuilding in active conflict zones comes with its share of hazard and futility, but it is a necessity in Gaza and Ukraine despite its uncertainty.
With only a series of brief respites in long-term conflicts, Ukraine and Gaza present a familiar dilemma: how to rebuild in active conflict zones. Given Russia’s apparent commitment to a forever war, Ukraine has been forced to carry out a piecemeal reconstruction as the war grinds on. In Gaza, both Israelis and Palestinians may see reasons to resume hostilities. The countries which will fund efforts to rebuild in these conflict zones should keep in mind that reconstruction brings its own kind of minefield, and any missteps will be costly.
Iraq’s parliamentary election on 11 November went smoothly from a procedural perspective but left a fragmented political landscape in its wake.
While incumbent Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani topped the poll on the back of a populist campaign of public sector spending, no one party is close to securing a majority.
Al Jazeera’s leadership shake-up has been in the headlines. Will its new executives direct the Qatari state-funded media arm to cease its cozy relationship with Hamas? Allegations have been swirling that the royal family’s soft power news outlet is not merely reporting what Hamas says but is actively collaborating with the terrorist organization.
Sudani did very well at the ballot box, but the peculiarities of Iraq’s long government formation process and the final distribution of parliamentary seats may leave the main Iran-backed coalition in the driver’s seat.
At first blush, the results of Iraq’s November 11 parliamentary election were encouraging, including for U.S. relations. Despite a boycott by Muqtada al-Sadr’s influential movement, participation rose to 55%, up 12 points from 2021’s low of 43%. Still, the faction that came in first—the Reconstruction and Development Coalition led by incumbent Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani—received only 15% of the seats in parliament (46 out of 329). As such, Iraq will likely experience a long, tedious period of political wrangling before a new government is seated, similar to previous post-election delays (eight months in 2010, eleven months in 2021–22).
The Taliban’s Commission for Refugees said on Monday that more than 7,700 Afghan migrants were deported from Pakistan the previous day, as Islamabad continues a sweeping crackdown on undocumented foreigners. An additional 246 individuals were expelled from Iran on the same day, the commission said.
Since its inception, the current Iranian regime has not been built on peace, but on the sword. The revolutionary slogans of the regime are not about coexistence or mutual respect; they are about domination, erasing enemies, and building an empire under the flag of the Supreme Leader. The regime has never sought to win influence by persuasion or diplomacy, but through nuclear weapons, ballistic missiles, and global assassinations. Pictured: Iran’s Supreme Guide Ali Khamenei gives a speech on November 1, 2023, televised on Iran’s Channel 1. (Image source: MEMRI)
The Iraqi Army is intensifying its campaign against the so-called Islamic State, driving on towards the main prize, the second city of Mosul.
The campaign was given a boost this week when US Defense Secretary Ash Carter announced the deployment of 560 more American troops, to add to 4,000-plus already there.
A synopsis of the various fighters in Iraq grouped by religion, culture, region, and political agendas.
Following the US military’s withdrawal from Iraq at the end of 2011, Sunni and Shia militias changed course: Some joined the political process, while others went through a period of inactivity. The ongoing conflict in Syria, however, has given a new lease on life to many of those groups.