Mosul was one of the most diverse cities in the Middle East with Muslims, Christians and Jews living side by side.

Almost two years after Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared it liberated from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) armed group, the Old City of Mosul remains largely in ruins. 

This historic part of Iraq's second largest city was home to half a million people before the ISIL took control in 2013. This densely populated area on the western banks of the Tigris used to be Mosul's economic centre and beating heart. ​

​The Country Is Not a U.S. Outpost Against Iran

​U.S. troops are on their way out of Syria. In Afghanistan, a similar drawdown, perhaps even a permanent exit, is in the offing as peace talks with the Taliban continue. On February 2, U.S. President Donald Trump turned his attention to a third crucible of conflict in the region: Iraq.

This time, however, rather than talk of a drawdown, Trump argued in an interview with CBS’ Face the Nation that U.S. troops should remain in Iraq—not just to continue to fight the Islamic State, or ISIS, but to “watch Iran.” U.S. bases in Iraq, Trump suggested, would serve as outposts for monitoring Tehran’s activities relating to “nuclear weapons or other things.”

Trump’s comments are reckless. They reflect a misguided obsession with Iran and portray Iraq as little more than a pawn in the United States’ Iran policy. Such rhetoric is poison for Washington’s relationship with Baghdad—one of the last remaining anchors for U.S. influence in a region littered with dysfunctional and counterproductive partnerships.

In 2014, as Islamic State militants were seizing large chunks of Iraqi territory and advancing toward Baghdad, hundreds of thousands of volunteers rose to the capital's defense. They joined the Shiite-dominated militias known in Arabic as the Hashd al Shaabi.

Though many of the militias were funded by neighboring Iran, they became a crucial part of the U.S.-led campaign to defeat the extremists.

That campaign all but ended last year with the defeat of Islamic State, but the Hashd is not demobilizing.
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Instead, the militias have transformed themselves into a potent government institution, political entity and economic player whose strong ties to Iran are likely to complicate U.S. foreign policy in the region.

An investigation by the independent Government Accountability Project exposes accusations that a hidden network of corruption cost U.S. taxpayers billions.

​The Department of Justice is investigating a military contracting company, Sallyport Global Services, to find out if it played a role in the alleged bribery of Iraqi government officials in exchange for exclusive contracts that cost American taxpayers billions.

But even the Feds may not realize the depth of the suspected corruption.

An investigation by the independent Government Accountability Project for The Daily Beast raises disturbing questions that go far beyond rogue employees of a Pentagon contractor.

Iran's Energy Minister Reza Ardakanian said Iranian private sector is going to contribute to rebuilding and overhauling Iraq’s damaged power plants, IRIB reported.

Ardakanian made the remarks after signing an initial agreement to boost cooperation in the fields of power generation and exports as well as the transfer of power industry technology with Iraqi Minister of Electricity Luay al-Khatib in Tehran on February 8.

According to the Iranian official, aligning the two countries electricity systems, construction of power plants as well as reduction of energy losses in Iraqi electricity network are among other provisions of this agreement.
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He further noted that a task force will be set up to follow up on the implementation of the provisions of this agreement, saying that the Iraqi government is ready to implement all the provisions.

The Trump administration is pressuring Iraq to stop buying energy from its neighbor and sole foreign supplier, Iran, in what has become a major point of conflict between Washington and Baghdad.

Iraqi leaders, fearing that a further shortfall in power would lead to mass protests and political instability in their electricity-starved country, are pushing back on the demand, which is rooted in President Trump’s sanctions against Iran.

The dispute has frayed American diplomacy with Baghdad as Iraq tries to steady itself after the United States military withdrawal in 2011 and the campaign against the Islamic State.
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Iraq’s defiance further jeopardizes Mr. Trump’s goal of getting all nations to comply with sanctions after withdrawing from the deal to limit Tehran’s nuclear program last year. Already, European nations have set up a legal financial mechanism to do business with Iran, and China and India are resisting American efforts at prodding them to cut off oil purchases.

Australian Report on US-led Coalition A Positive Step, but Questions Remain

​It is well known that civilians have been killed during the US-led coalition’s military operations against ISIS in Iraq and Syria since 2014, but almost two years on from some of the heaviest bombing in the cities of Mosul and Raqqa, the coalition’s own estimates of civilian deaths are far below public estimates.

One coalition member deserves praise for choosing transparency over the normal wall of silence. As it has done in previous incidents, on February 1, 2019, the Australian Defence Force (ADF) acknowledged it might have caused between 6 and 18 civilian casualties in a strike on a Mosul neighborhood on June 13, 2017.

Australia has come a long way from March 2017 when the ADF admitted it did not track data on civilian casualties in Iraq and Syria.

​One day after Iran's Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh complained that Iraq has not paid billions of dollars for its imports from Iran after the re-imposition of U.S. sanctions, Iran's Central Bank Governor told reporters that he has reached an agreement with his Iraqi counterpart about the payments.

The chief banker Abdolnasser Hemmati arrived in Baghdad Tuesday evening for negotiations regarding bilateral banking relations and the payment of Iraq's debts for the electricity and natural gas provided by Tehran.

Hemmati told Tasnim news agency on Wednesday that a mechanism for the payments has been finalized thanks to an agreement he signed with his Iraqi counterpart Ali al-Alaq. The agreement, Hemmati said, also covers payments for Iraq's other imports from Iran.
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He said that based on the arrangements made, payments for natural gas, electricity and other commodities sold to Iraq by Iran will be made based on "payment orders" issued by the Central Bank of Iran. Iran’s Tasnim news agency quoted Hemmati as saying that the central bank will create accounts in Euros and Iraqi dinars to facilitate payment for exported natural gas and electricity.

Iraqis attack 'cheap and low' policy of shooting unarmed civilians by British occupation forces made public by MEE earlier this week.

​For Iyad Salim, revelations that British forces had in some circumstances allowed soldiers to fire at unarmed civilians during their occupation of the southern Iraqi province of Basra hardly came as a surprise.

“It’s all true,” he told Middle East Eye. "The British harmed us a lot.”

On Monday, MEE revealed that the British army had implemented rules of engagement in Iraq - as well as Afghanistan - that at times had allowed soldiers to shoot unarmed civilians who were suspected of keeping them under surveillance.

The report, based on the testimonies of former soldiers, has further cast a shadow on the legacy of the British forces’ conduct during the occupation of Basra, which lasted between 2003 and 2007 and saw numerous allegations of abuse against the province’s residents.