Iran lost more than its ablest commander, “resistance” icon and shadow foreign minister with the demise of Qassem Soleimani. It lost its future. Or at least a vision of the future that Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei had been carefully preparing for in coordination with the slain general. The Khamenei-Soleimani partnership is not well understood outside … Continue reading “In Soleimani’s Death, Khamenei’s Despair Over His Hopes to Reengineer the Iran Hierarchy”
The demonstrators in Baghdad and in much of southern Iraq speak of their movement, now in its second month, as the harbinger of a “revolution.” Theirs is intended to be a radical revolution, aimed at removing – whether by constitutional means or not – the ruling political class that has been in power since 2003. … Continue reading “Iraq: Memes and Protests Alone Do Not Make a Revolution”
The oddest feature of the United Kingdom’s recent decision to censure the entirety of Lebanon’s Hezbollah as a terrorist group is that it hadn’t happened before. The second-oddest feature is that it is happening at this time. Trying to rationalize the timing has sent Middle East watchers into a tizzy of speculation, ranging from a … Continue reading “Britain’s Ban on Hezbollah: Why Now?”
Immediately following the announcement of Iraq’s pick for president and prime minister-designate, US senator Marco Rubio tweeted out that the new line-up, nominally arrived at through political consensus among the biggest winners of last May’s parliamentary elections, had been “personally brokered” by Iranian General Qasem Soleimani of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and commander of its Quds Force. … Continue reading “Labyrinthine Iranian Politics in Choice of Iraqi Leaders”
On August 29, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called the former president of the Kurdistan Regional Government, Masoud Barzani, beseeching him to support Iraq’s prime minister, Haider Al Abadi, for a second term, according to an American source with knowledge of the conversation. Barzani was non-committal. After all, Al Abadi was the one who … Continue reading “How American Mismanagement in Iraq Gives Iran an Edge in Baghdad”
