What Moqtada said about (Iraq) being close to some sort of armed conflict is concerning. The situation is tense and it seems to be on the brink of conflict.

Renad Mansour

Categorized in : World

That's a lesson they learned from Basra in 2018 because protests stopped after 20 or so people were killed ... there's a logic that if you kill enough people they'll quiet down.

Brigade 30 have gained quite a bit of leverage in Mosul ... they feel like they made some good gains during the fight and are now being told to give up major checkpoints.

The U.S. is ... going to Iraqi leaders and saying you're either with us or with them, iraqis have been saying why can't we be allies with both? But the Americans aren't interested in that and I think neither are the Iranians.

Iran would have preferred if Fatih and (Maliki's) State of Law (party) had done better than Sadr so any kind of redo where a different scenario comes out is better for Iran.

There is a lack of clarity as to who is in charge, what procedure is the legal procedure. Everyone is doing their own thing. The government institutions meant to monitor this process are neither independent nor powerful.

Prime Minister Abadi's the favorite to win, and Prime Minister Abadi's trying to pursue this Iraq-wide strategy, prime Minister Abadi came to the Kurdistan region and Prime Minister Abadi came to Sunni areas in Nineveh and Anbar and now Prime Minister Abadi's in the south, Prime Minister Abadi's trying to cover the whole country.