Efforts‌ ‌to‌ ‌resolve‌ ‌a‌ ‌slow-burning‌ ‌maritime‌ ‌boundary‌ ‌dispute‌ ‌between‌ ‌Iraq‌ ‌and‌ ‌Kuwait‌ ‌hit‌ ‌a‌ ‌dead end‌ ‌last‌ ‌month.‌ Renewed political‌ ‌differences‌ ‌over‌ ‌Khor‌ ‌Abdullah,‌ ‌a‌ ‌narrow‌ ‌corridor‌ ‌with shared sovereignty‌,‌ are bubbling beneath the surface of what appear to be cordial relations between the Gulf neighbours. The issue is casting a long shadow over the future of bilateral relations.
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Kuwait‌ ‌is‌ ‌accused‌ ‌by Iraq of‌ ‌altering‌ ‌the‌ ‌surface‌ area of the ‌waterway by installing a naval platform as part of the construction of Mubarak Al-Kabir Port on the opposite bank to Iraq’s Umm Qasr Port.

Referred to as Fisht El-Eij, the artificial piece of land, insists Kuwait, lies within its own territorial waters. Iraq disagrees, and says that, since 2012, such plans undermine the existing maritime borders. Once completed, the new port will make it difficult for Iraq to challenge Kuwait’s claim to territories that Baghdad‌ ‌has‌ historically ‌‌‌administered.‌
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On‌ 5 ‌September‌ ‌Baghdad‌ appealed‌ formally ‌to‌ ‌the‌ UN ‌Security‌ ‌Council‌ ‌to intervene in the conflict, protesting against ‌Kuwaiti‌ ‌attempts‌ ‌to‌ ‌deprive‌ ‌Iraq‌ ‌of‌ ‌joint‌ ‌ownership‌ and the freedom to navigate the narrow waterway.

​Samir Berro and Shibl Muhsin Obaid Al Zaydi formed Gulf Bird in Beirut in 2007, records show

A Lebanese man wanted by the US for allegedly supplying drone technology to Hezbollah once formed an aviation company in partnership with an Iraqi militant who has been sanctioned for assisting Iran's Revolutionary Guard, an investigation by The National has found.

Lebanese corporate records show that Samir Berro was a co-founder of Beirut-based Gulf Bird in 2007 along with an Iraqi national identified as Shibl Muhsin Obaid.

The National cross-referenced information provided on the Iraqi's ID document with US and Iraqi government data as well as the corporate documents to determine that the person in question is Shibl Muhsin Obaid Al Zaydi, the leader of the Iran-backed Kataib Al Imam Ali militia in Iraq.
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In November 2018, the US Treasury Department sanctioned Mr Al Zaydi for working on behalf of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' Quds Force (IRGC-QF) to support Hezbollah.

​United States Army forces buried alive scores of Iraqi soldiers in their trenches in the early hours of the allied ground attack that ended the Persian Gulf war, Army commanders said this week.

The deaths took place during the operation in which American M1-A1 tanks of the First Infantry Division cut lanes through a 10-mile-wide stretch of barbed wire, minefields, bunkers and trenches north of the Iraqi-Saudi Arabian border on Feb. 24 as the allied ground offensive unfolded.

Army officials said the Iraqi soldiers who died remained in their trenches as plow-equipped tanks dumped tons of earth and sand onto them, filling the trenches to insure that they could not be used as cover from which to fire on allied units that were poised to pour through the gaps. Avoiding Hand-to-Hand Combat
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The Army said it knew the operation would kill Iraqis who did not surrender or otherwise get out of the way, but said the tactic spared the lives of American soldiers who would have had to leave the safety of their armored vehicles and fight Iraqi troops hand to hand in the trenches.

Arab sources told Asharq Al-Awsat on Saturday that Iraqi national security advisor and chief of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) Faleh Fayyad had asked during his last visit to Moscow last month, to purchase either the S-300 or S-400 missile defense system, explaining that Tehran had encouraged Baghdad on this move.

Earlier, Iraqi authorities had denied their intention to purchase the S-400 defense system.

Observers believe that Washington would object Iraq’s current intent to own the S-300 system, similar to a US previous position when Ankara announced a decision to purchase the S-400 system from Russia.

The S-400 Triumf (NATO reporting name: SA-21 Growler) is the most advanced long-range anti-aircraft missile system that went into service in 2007.

Scientist: Bombs, bullets and military hardware abandoned by U.S. forces have left Iraq "toxic for millennia"

​The political and moral culture of the United States allows for bipartisan cooperation to destroy an entire country, killing hundreds of thousands of people in the process, without even the flimsiest of justification. Then, only a few years later, everyone can act as if it never happened.

In 2011, the U.S. withdrew most of its military personnel from Iraq, leaving the country in ruins. Estimates of the number of civilians who died during the war in Iraq range from 151,000 to 655,000. An additional 4,491 American military personnel perished in the war. Because the bombs have stopped falling from the sky and the invasion and occupation of Iraq no longer makes headlines, Americans likely devote no thought to the devastation that occurred in their name.
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With the exception of Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii, who is currently polling at or below 2 percent, no candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination has consistently addressed the criminality, cruelty and cavalier wastefulness of American foreign policy. Joe Biden, the frontrunner in the race, not only supported the war in Iraq — despite his recent incoherent claims to the contrary — but as chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee acted as its most effective and influential salesman in the Democratic Party.

Lift Unlawful Restrictions Blocking Thousands

​The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) is preventing about 4,200 Sunni Arabs from returning home to 12 villages east of Mosul, Human Rights Watch said today. More than three years after the Hamdaniya district was retaken from the Islamic State (also known as ISIS), in one area KRG authorities have only allowed Kurdish residents and Arabs with KRG ties to return, in violation of international humanitarian law.

The Arab families seeking to return home had fled primarily to ISIS-controlled Mosul during fighting in 2014. Approximately 3,400 Sunni Arabs have been residing in camps for the displaced with dwindling services, according to aid workers. Affected families said they have been blocked from their homes and farmland and unable to earn a living. A KRG official wrote in an email to Human Rights Watch that residents were free to return to their homes, but provided Human Rights Watch with a list of Nineveh villages that were difficult to return to, identifying six from Hamdaniya as “blocked” for return.

“The Kurdistan Regional Government is preventing thousands of Arab villagers from returning home without a lawful reason,” said Lama Fakih, acting Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “The fact that the KRG is permitting Kurdish and well-connected Arab residents back suggests that these villagers are being improperly punished.”

Iraq complained in an official letter to the UN Security Council about the State of Kuwait, accusing it of pursuing a policy of imposing geographical changes in the maritime borders between the two countries.

According to the Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Rai, the Permanent Representative of the Republic of Iraq to the United Nations Ambassador Mohammed Hussein Bahr Al-Uloom handed over an official letter to the President of the Security Council on August 7, demanding that it be circulated and issued as an official document by the Council. The newspaper also stated that Bahr Al-Uloom met with several representatives of countries to explain his country’s position.

The Iraqi government asked the United Nations to document its official complaint that “the Kuwaiti government’s carrying out of geographical changes in the maritime area after the 162 mark in Khawr Abd Allah by shoring a shallow area (Fasht Al-Aij) and unilaterally establishing a port facility there, without Iraq’s knowledge and approval.”
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The Iraqi government considered that this has no legal basis in the joint plan to regulate maritime navigation in Khawr Abd Allah, pointing out that the demarcation of the borders by one party in areas not agreed upon by both parties, as stipulated by Amiri Decree 317 of 2014 regarding the delimitation of Kuwaiti maritime regions, is a void act under the provisions of the international law.

Some Forced Back to Home Regions Despite Safety Threats

Local authorities have forcibly expelled more than 2,000 Iraqis from camps for displaced people in Nineveh governorate since August 23, 2019, Human Rights Watch said today.

Some were forced to return to their home regions, despite fears for their safety, including from former neighbors who perceive them as being linked to the Islamic State (ISIS). Some have come under attack since being forced home. Authorities in Nineveh have also blocked families who tried to leave the camps to avoid expulsion.

“Displaced people, like all other Iraqis, have the right to move freely in their country and decide where they feel safe to live,” said Lama Fakih, acting Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “Authorities can’t move people without first consulting them, especially not to places where they and their families face danger.”

Authorities in Salah al-Din have also announced plans to close camps for displaced people or are already forcing people to return to their governorates of origin.

Affects Thousands Who Lived Under ISIS Rule

​The Iraqi government is denying thousands of children whose parents have a perceived Islamic State (also known as ISIS) affiliation of their right to access an education, Human Rights Watch said today. The children, who were born or lived in areas under the control of ISIS between 2014 and 2017, lack the civil documentation the Iraqi government requires for school enrollment and the government is making it difficult for them to acquire it.

A September 2018 document signed by senior Education Ministry officials endorsed a discussion that appears to allow children missing civil documentation to enroll in school. But officials are instructing school principals and aid groups providing support services for education that undocumented children are still barred from enrolling in government schools.

“Denying children their right to education because of something their parents might have done is a grossly misguided form of collective punishment,” said Lama Fakih, acting Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “It undermines any potential government efforts to counter extremist ideology by pushing these children to the margins of society.”

Now that document has been declassified and it reveals that there was virtually zero justification for the war. The document reveals that there was “no operational tie between Saddam and al Qaeda” and no WMD programs.

Thirteen years ago, the intelligence community concluded in a 93-page classified document used to justify the invasion of Iraq that it lacked “specific information” on “many key aspects” of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction (WMD) programs.

But that’s not what top Bush administration officials said during their campaign to sell the war to the American public. Those officials, citing the same classified document, asserted with no uncertainty that Iraq was actively pursuing nuclear weapons, concealing a vast chemical and biological weapons arsenal, and posing an immediate and grave threat to US national security.
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Congress eventually concluded that the Bush administration had “overstated” its dire warnings about the Iraqi threat, and that the administration’s claims about Iraq’s WMD program were “not supported by the underlying intelligence reporting.” But that underlying intelligence reporting — contained in the so-called National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) that was used to justify the invasion — has remained shrouded in mystery until now.