Experts from the U.S. Institute of Peace provide the latest analysis and perspective on the world’s critical hot spots, U.S. and global security and issues involved in violent conflict, based on the Institute’s work on the ground and with key individuals, governments and organizations. They give interviews and background briefings to journalists and write for news outlets around the world.
Violence in Baghdad has now killed at least two dozen people and injured hundreds in the last two days. Supporters of the popular cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, some of them armed, clashed with Iraqi security forces, which include members of Iran-backed militias. The fighting comes as...
President Joe Biden's administration is finding its hands increasingly tied in Baghdad after violent clashes this week over the Iraqi government stalemate left at least 30 people dead and hundreds more injured. Various US agencies are monitoring the violence as concerns grow of a return to...
In Iraq’s November 2021 parliamentary elections, Shia leader Muqtada al-Sadr and his Tripartite Coalition won a majority of seats, and were apparently poised to oust former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and his Iran-backed Coordination Framework. However, Iraq’s constitution...
“If there is a perception that the U.S. will keep its military presence in Iraq and will have a mission more than just training the Iraqi security forces, then that will increase the incentive for the Shi’ite militias to more directly apply pressure on the United States to leave,” said Sarhang Hamasaeed, director of Middle East Programs at the U.S. Institute of Peace in Washington.
Sunnis oppose Shiites. Turkish proxies resist Iranian-backed Shiite militias. Groups favoring a unified region quarrel with those who want division. Kurds seek autonomy. There's even fracturing within tribes and families, especially between Sunni Arabs who shunned ISIS and those who did not, according to Institute of Peace executive Sarhang Hamasaeed. Violence is never far away. "There are so many triggers," he says.
“Sinjar could be a flashpoint for an internationalized tension ... where you have the sensitivities between minorities themselves, and you have regional countries like Turkey and Iran who have a stake in this,” said Sarhang Hamasaeed, an Iraqi expert at the U.S. Institute of Peace.
Sunday marked one year since anti-government protests in Iraq turned bloody kicking off a new wave of demonstrations demanding political reform. Those demonstrating are being met with tear gas and water cannons while calling for new elections, more economic...
President Biden said on Monday that the United States would end its combat mission in Iraq by the end of the year, shifting fully to an advisory and training role as America dials down its involvement in long-term conflicts in the Middle East. “We’re not going to...
When it comes to winding down America’s wars, the contrast between President Biden’s handling of Iraq and Afghanistan is growing sharper. At the White House on Monday, Mr. Biden promised Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi of Iraq that the United States would...
US President Joe Biden and Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi on Monday sealed an agreement formally ending the US combat mission in Iraq by the end of 2021, more than 18 years after US troops were sent to the country. Coupled with Biden's withdrawal of...