UAE's ambitious plans for solar investment in Iraq feed directly into its broader regional strategy, but they have received little public scrutiny, writes Taif Alkhudary.

​In June, Iraq signed an agreement with Emirati-owned energy company Masdar to develop solar plants in central and southern parts of the country that can generate up to 2GW of power. 

The deal is part of Iraq's wider plans to lessen its dependence on fossil fuels and diversify its economy. In parallel, it is indicative of the UAE's "climate diplomacy". That is, the use of its renewable energy capabilities to increase its ties with Iraq and counter the influence of regional powers such as Iran. While the Emirates has invested money in Iraq to this end since at least 2003, little will be gained if such projects do not materialise. 
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Emirati interests in Iraq 

Iraq has long been an arena where rivalries between regional and international powers have played out. This is no truer than in the case of tensions between Iran and its neighbours in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), including the UAE. Since the US-led invasion, the Emirates has relied on soft power to keep Iranian influence in Iraq at bay. In doing so, it has been able to bolster its own defences and increase its ties across the region.

Iran’s ambassador to Baghdad highlighted the Islamic Republic’s support for Iraq’s national unity and close relations with all political currents, stressing that Tehran will not support any specific party, group or individual in the parliamentary elections slated for October.

In comments about the Iraqi parliamentary elections, due to be held on October 10, Iranian ambassador to Baghdad Iraj Masjedi said the Islamic Republic maintains firm and friendly ties with all Iraqi political currents and will not support any specific party or figure against another one.

Iran has always supported the national unity of Iraq and backs cooperation and fraternity among Iraqi parties, currents and coalitions, he added.
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The frequent visits that the Iraqi officials pay to Iran indicate that the Islamic Republic has broad relations with all Iraqi parties and groups, the ambassador stressed.

​Iraq's Ministry of Electricity on Tuesday said that it lost 2,600 megawatts from its electrical power after Iran reduced its gas supply to the country.

​In a statement carried by the Iraqi News Agency, the ministry said that Iran reduced its daily gas supply from 30 million cubic meter to 20 million, in addition to reducing the southern area daily supply from 17 million to 5 million, which resulted in the loss of 2,600 megawatts from the electrical national grid.

The electricity ministry is working with the oil ministry to compensate for the loss of supply, the ministry added in the statement.

Leader of the Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF) in Iraq, Falih Al-Fayyadh, wants to replicate the Iranian Revolutionary Guards model in Iraq, Iran's IRNA news agency reported.

"We are proud of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards and the Islamic Revolution example, and today we consider it our duty to use the Iranian Revolutionary Guards' experience within the laws and characteristics of Iraq,"  Al-Fayyadh said during a meeting with the commander of the Revolutionary Guards, Hossein Salami, in the Iranian capital Tehran.

"We are your supporters in the resistance front and in the continuation of this great battle," he added.

For his part, Salami valued what he called the PMF's strategic role in defeating Daesh, and the achievement of security and stability in Iraq.

General Salami also hoped that the PMF will grow as a jihadist defensive force with grand principles and deep faith.



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When the Green Party's Caroline Lucas MP asked Britain's Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs whether the government was supporting gas-related projects in other countries financially, the minister replied that the government was continuing to support the General Electric power project in Iraq. This is in line with Britain's policy in Iraq.
General Electric is an American multinational company, ranked as one of the 300 largest companies in the US in terms of total revenues. The company, under pressure from former US President Donald Trump, won a contract in 2017 worth more than $1.2 billion "to implement projects in the energy sector that will provide reliable energy supplies across [Iraq]."

The British government also agreed to provide a contract worth $155 million for General Electric with another British company to strengthen the energy sector in Iraq. Creating such projects provides huge opportunities for British exporters, according to the Secretary of State for International Trade who, in his delight when announcing the deals, neglected to mention how much profit Britain would get in return.

​Lucas considered the Secretary of State's answer to be adequate. What is important, from the point of view of a British politician, whether from the left or right, is that the government continues to cooperate with the Iraqi government in providing services and stability to the Iraqi people. Economic domination and, through it, political domination following the 2003 invasion and occupation, is rarely mentioned publicly.

​The administration of US President Joe Biden has extended the exemption period granted to Iraq from sanctions related to dealing with Iran for a period of four months, an Iraqi official said yesterday.

AFP quoted an unnamed Iraqi official as saying that under the new exception, Iraq will be able to continue importing electricity and gas from Iran for an additional four months, ending in early December.

The four months exemption period is the longest period allowed by US law.

Iraq relies heavily on Iran in the field of energy, as it imports a third of its consumer needs of gas and electricity from Tehran.

Iraq currently produces 16,000 megawatts of electricity, which is much less than its estimated need of 24,000 megawatts, and up to 30,000 in summer.




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​The invasion of Kuwait on 2 August 1990 was a quick victory for Saddam Hussein, with devastating long-term consequences for Iraq.

​It has been 31 years since former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein ordered the invasion of neighbouring Kuwait, triggering decades of international isolation and misery for the Iraqi people.

While the dispute with Kuwait and other wealthy oil-monarchies stems back to the manipulation of crude oil prices and attacks against Iraq's recovering economy, Saddam Hussein's decision to use military force to resolve the quarrel had consequences that Iraqis still feel to this day.

Though Iraq's short-lived occupation was ended by a joint military effort of dozens of nations led by the US in Operation Desert Storm in 1991, Iraq's long-term defeat was not achieved without resorting to numerous war crimes and a sanctions regime that killed hundreds of thousands of children in just a few short years.

Iraqi authorities are routinely denying prisoners their rights from arrest through prosecution, according to the United Nations, leaving tens of thousands vulnerable to violence and other forms of abuse while in custody.

A new report, released Tuesday by the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, details a labyrinth of unfairness, with detainees often denied due process at every turn. Confessions frequently come through torture, it says. Few detainees see a lawyer until they appear in court. In some cases, they do not even know which authority is holding them.
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Four years after the U.S.-backed defeat of the Islamic State group here, more than 40,000 inmates are packed in prisons across Iraq’s federal and Kurdish regions. Judicial records and court visits suggest that roughly half were arrested on terrorism charges, then tried in a system that affords little effort to weight specific evidence against them.

​The U.N. report is based on 235 interviews with current or former detainees, as well as discussions with prison staff, judges, lawyers, families of the detainees and other relevant parties.

Iran actively obstructs feeders of Mesopotamia's most important rivers, sources of more than 90% of its fresh water

​Years of aggression by Iran toward its western neighbor Iraq have culminated in the outright theft of the country’s natural resources.

For the last several weeks, reports in international media have drawn attention to Iran’s systematic rerouting of Iraq’s vital waterways.

Despite persistent demands from Iraqi officials, Iran has been actively obstructing feeders of the most important rivers in Mesopotamia, the Tigris and the Euphrates, from which Iraq gets more than 90% of its fresh water.

Western-style democracy has failed Iraq, bringing a dystopian economy, an ineffectual government and more pain for its long-suffering people

​Iraq in 2021 is still a state afflicted by poverty, injustice, the trauma of great loss of life, and daily fear. Iraqis still suffer from a sense of powerlessness, defeat and humiliation. Since the start of the year, 330 civilians have been killed, including 27 children. Iraq Body Count has now documented more than 208,800 violent civilian deaths since the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, most of them occurring after the country became a democracy in 2005.

​Democratically elected governments in Iraq, supported by the US-UK coalition that invaded and occupied Iraq in March 2003, as part of the ‘War on Terror’, have so far killed more than 4,000 Iraqi civilians through bombing and shelling aimed to destroy the insurgency and in the last years the Iraqi police force and militias it supports have killed hundreds of protesters across Iraq. The Iraqi governments also allowed the killing of thousands more in airstrikes by Coalition and Turkish forces or Iranian-supported militias such as the Popular Mobilisation Forces.
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Iraq held its first parliamentary elections in December 2005, while the country was still under US and British occupation. It was meant to hold its fifth elections a month ago, in June, but they have been delayed until mid-October, because the country's Independent High Electoral Commission asked for more time to organise "free and fair elections". Yet, from their very start, Iraq’s elections have been marred by violence, fraud and protests.