Blog Posts

Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990 used by UK to boost weapon sales

16/7/2019

Challenger II tanks were among the weapons being promoted. © Derek Hudson/Getty Images

Thatcher government saw war on Saddam as an ‘unparalleled opportunity’ to sell arms, declassified secret memos reveal

The British government saw Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait as an “unparalleled opportunity” to sell arms to Gulf states, according to recently declassified secret documents.

The memos, released by the National Archives, reveal how in the build-up to the 1990 Gulf war ministers and civil servants scrambled to ensure Britain’s arms manufacturers could take advantage of the anticipated rise in orders for military hardware.

The documents include confidential briefings from Alan Clark, then defence procurement minister, to the prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, as he toured Gulf states on the eve of the war. The government’s efforts reaped dividends. The war provided a significant fillip for arms sales to the region and helped nurture a strong relationship that continues to this day.

Pompeo Seeks to Make Baghdad Embassy Pullout Permanent, Officials Say

15/7/2019

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo boards a plane before departing from Baghdad during a brief visit to Iraq on May 7. © MANDEL NGAN/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

The abrupt evacuation in May left hundreds of diplomats in limbo and too few in Iraq to handle Iran’s influence and other pressing issues, according to State Department sources.

In May, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo ordered a partial evacuation of diplomats from the U.S. Embassy in Iraq amid escalating tensions with Iran. Now, several State Department officials say they are being told the drawdown in embassy staff will effectively become permanent, a move that could leave the U.S. Embassy short-staffed to undertake important tasks like countering Iran on the diplomatic front—and in the short-term has marooned hundreds of diplomats in the Washington area without an embassy to go back to.

A State Department spokesman said this characterization of the drawdown is “inaccurate.” He said: “No decision on permanent staffing levels have been made, but a review of staffing is in process.”

But three other State Department officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the staffing levels at the Baghdad embassy reached after the evacuation in May are being treated as a de facto permanent cap on State Department personnel in Iraq.

Majorities of U.S. veterans, public say the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were not worth fighting

15/7/2019

U.S. Army Capt. Matt Anderson and Sgts. (Ret.) Daniel Harrison and Noah Galloway ride in a helicopter to Forward Operating Base Fenty near Bagram, Afghanistan, in 2014. They were touring with a program that brings wounded servicemen back to Iraq and Afghanistan to help them come to terms with their injuries. ©Scott Olson/Getty Images

Nearly 18 years since the start of the war in Afghanistan and 16 years since the U.S. invasion of Iraq, majorities of U.S. military veterans say those wars were not worth fighting, according to a new Pew Research Center survey of veterans. A parallel survey of American adults finds that the public shares those sentiments.

Among veterans, 64% say the war in Iraq was not worth fighting considering the costs versus the benefits to the United States, while 33% say it was. The general public’s views are nearly identical: 62% of Americans overall say the Iraq War wasn’t worth it and 32% say it was. Similarly, majorities of both veterans (58%) and the public (59%) say the war in Afghanistan was not worth fighting. About four-in-ten or fewer say it was worth fighting.

Veterans who served in either Iraq or Afghanistan are no more supportive of those engagements than those who did not serve in these wars. And views do not differ based on rank or combat experience.

Views do differ significantly by party, however. Republican and Republican-leaning veterans are much more likely than veterans who identify with or lean toward the Democratic Party to say the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were worth fighting: 45% of Republican veterans vs. 15% of Democratic veterans say the war in Iraq was worth fighting, while 46% of Republican veterans and 26% of Democratic veterans say the same about Afghanistan. The party gaps are nearly identical among the public.

Views on U.S. military engagement in Syria are also more negative than positive. Among veterans, 42% say the campaign in Syria has been worth it, while 55% say it has not. The public has very similar views: 36% say U.S. efforts in Syria have been worthwhile, while 58% say they have not.

Among veterans, these views are consistent across era of service, rank and combat experience. Republican veterans are significantly more likely than Democrats to say the Syrian campaign has been worth it (54% vs. 25%).

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US, Iranian Delegations Secretly Met in Northern Iraq

11/7/2019

Iraqi officials have expressed major concern about being sucked into a US-Iran War, and so it is unsurprising that new reports of the two nations having held some secret talks put the location of the meeting in northern Iraq.

Details are scant. The two delegations reportedly met in a hotel in Irbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan. The Iranian delegation was led by Hassan Khomenei, the grandson of the former supreme leader, along with the nation’s special envoy to Iraq and two officials from the Revolutionary Guard Corps. There was no word on which US officials were present.

Nor indeed was there any word from either side on the results of these talks. Iran had rejected the idea of talking with the US just a week prior unless the US lifted sanctions on them, while US calls for talks are all hinged on implications that Iran was ready to make concessions.

Instead it seems their diplomatic hardball with one another was more likely overcome by Iraq, a nation they both want good relations with, and which has grown increasingly impatient with the two nations’ acrimony so often threatening to bring war to Iraqi soil.

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Analysis: How Iran is transforming Iraq into a second Lebanon

9/7/2019

Iraq plays a double game by claiming to integrate Iran-backed Shiite militias into its military forces.

The government of Iraq appears to be playing a double game with the United States and Iran over the influence of the Iranian-backed Hashd al-Shaabi umbrella organization of predominantly Shiite militias in the country.

Almost three years after a law was passed making Hash al-Shaabi integral part of the Iraqi security forces Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi issued a decree ordering the Iranian-backed organization to integrate fully into the Iraqi military and abandon previous affiliations.

Mahdi issued an ultimatum which said the offices of Hasd al-Shaabi affiliated militias had to be closed down before July 31 while the militias also must end their practice of erasing checkpoints in areas where they want to increase their influence.

Militias failing to comply with the order will be considered illegal organizations while Mahdi gave them the option to transform into political parties after abandoning their weapons.

It is time to recognise Iraq as Iran’s Trojan horse

8/7/2019

Serious matter. Iraqi Foreign Minister Mohamed Alhakim (R) and his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif during a news conference at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Baghdad, last May. © AP

The United States needs to stop mollycoddling the Iraqi regime and must acknowledge that Washington utterly failed to introduce a functioning democracy in Iraq.

In what is an unsurprising but perhaps disappointing revelation, the Wall Street Journal reported that the US State Department concluded that recent attacks on Saudi oil infrastructure were not orchestrated by the Iran-backed Houthi extremists.

Instead, the State Department said it had evidence that drones used in the attack originated from southern Iraq, an area filled with pro-Iran Shia jihadist groups that fight under the command of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

In other words, the IRGC made good on its threats to strike the United States and its allies and sought to divert blame onto its proxies in Saudi’s troubled southern neighbour Yemen. The reason is clear: to protect Iraq’s image as a “neutral party” when it is Iran’s Trojan horse in the Arab world, working to further Iranian interests and undermine its Arab neighbours.

Iraq: Thousands Detained, Including Children, in Degrading Conditions

4/7/2019

Juveniles’ cell at Tal Kayf prison, taken in April 2019 and shared confidentially with Human Rights Watch, shows extreme overcrowding at the prison. © 2019 Private

Three Nineveh Jails Way Over Capacity

Nineveh’s extremely overcrowded detention facilities are holding thousands of prisoners in Iraq, most on terrorism charges, for extended periods in conditions so degrading that they amount to ill-treatment. The authorities should ensure that prisoners are not held in inhuman conditions and that there is a clear legal basis for detentions, Human Rights Watch said today.

“The Iraqi government urgently needs to rebuild and rehabilitate its detention facilities,” said Lama Fakih, acting Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “Iraq has a duty to ensure that detainees are housed decently, in line with international standards.”

Tal Kayf, Faisaliya, and Tasfirat (in the Faisaliya compound), the three pretrial detention facilities in the northern Iraq governorate, have a combined maximum capacity of 2,500 people, according to a senior Iraqi penitentiary expert who requested anonymity. As of late June 2019, they were holding about 4,500 prisoners and detainees. Of that number, 1,300 had been tried and convicted and should have been transferred to Baghdad prisons. The authorities had yet to take the steps needed to transfer them, the expert said, even six months after some were convicted.

Iraq: Displaced People Unable to Return Home Years After Battles

14/6/2019

An estimated 1.8 million people remain displaced by the conflict between Iraqi forces and the Islamic State (also known as ISIS) two years after the heaviest fighting ended.

A new Human Rights Watch web feature highlights the experiences of families who are struggling to find a safe home in post-ISIS Iraq.

“Iraqi authorities have put in place a system that has allowed communities, security forces, and government agencies to collectively punish families whose relatives were allegedly linked to ISIS,” said Belkis Wille, senior Iraq researcher at Human Rights Watch.

“This system has put these families in a purgatory that prevents them from returning home, imprisons them in camps, and forces them to endure dire conditions that portend bleak futures for their children.”

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IRAQI SHI'ITE GROUPS DEEPEN CONTROL IN STRATEGIC SUNNI AREAS

13/6/2019

A car drives past graffiti in a street in Mosul, Iraq October 27, 2018. Picture taken October 27, 2018. ©REUTERS/Ari Jalal

MOSUL, Iraq (Reuters) - The only sign that Sunni-majority Mosul’s newest and busiest marketplace is in Shi’ite Muslim hands is a small plaque in the office of its leaseholder from Baghdad.

“The Imam Hussein Market,” it reads, dedicated to the Prophet Mohammed’s grandson and most revered Shi’ite imam.

Banners of Shi’ite leaders that militiamen erected after helping drive out the Sunni extremists of Islamic State two years ago have been removed amid fears of renewed sectarian tension.

Iraq’s second city, once a recruitment center for Sunni officers in Saddam Hussein’s army, became an al Qaeda hotbed after the 2003 U.S. invasion that toppled the dictator, and later the base from where IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared a caliphate in 2014.

Nobody wants us: The plight of displaced female-headed families in Iraq

12/6/2019

Khaled*, 13, sat leaning against his grandmother’s shoulder, toying with a piece of wire. She wrapped her arm around him and kissed his head as she said:

“We don’t want them to take him. He’s the only son we have left now.”

Surrounding them both in a semi-circle sat his mother, several of his aunts, and other female relatives. The large family arrived at the camp in August 2017 when it first opened, on the eastern bank of the Tigris River in Ninewa governorate. They have been living there ever since. The decision as to whether they can return home lies with men in their villages.

Khaled’s mother, Nawal*, explained: “In our village there was a meeting. They said our family can never come back. Others who had a Daeshi [family member who joined IS] have been allowed back. They had someone who supported them. We have no one. All our men are either dead, missing or in jail.”

Iraq