Iran has maintained a significant interest in Iraq for many years, acting as a safe haven for dissidents from Saddam Hussain’s regime and, following the 2003 intervention, taking up a role as both a major political actor and providing support to Shiite militias who targeted coalition forces and the country’s...

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As Iraqis prepare to go to the polls on May 12, Iran’s influence in the country is growing, raising concerns over Tehran’s sectarian agenda and interference in Iraq’s democratic election process, Fox News reported Wednesday. Iran and Iraq, both Shiite-majority counties, share a 1,500-kilometer (900-mile) border and maintain deep economic...

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The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has fired its first official Jewish Representative, Sherzad Omar Mamsani, reportedly under pressure from the central government in Baghdad. The Times of Israel reported on Thursday that the head of the KRG’s Ministry for Endowment and Religious Affairs, Mariwan Nasqshbandy, suggested that the decision to...

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Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi issued a decree on Thursday which formalizes the Iranian-backed Hashd al-Shaabi militia, also known as Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), as a force under the command of the country’s security forces. Rudaw, a Kurdish news site, reported that the directive will grant to Hashd al-Shaabi many...

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Iran-backed Shia militia forces have been accused by a parliamentarian of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in the autonomous region in northern Iraq of engaging in “flagrant injustice” toward the Christian minority, Ben Cohen reported in The Algemeiner on Monday. Wahida Yaqo Hormuz, a Christian representative in the Kurdish parliament,...

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Defenders of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), as the Iran nuclear deal is known, have argued that Iran’s aggression was intentionally not addressed by the deal. For example this week, Federica Moghereni, the High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy said, “The Iran deal has been...

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Iraq’s parliament in Baghdad voted on Tuesday to criminalize flying the Israeli flag in the country, after accusing Israel and Mossad of orchestrating the Kurdish independence referendum on September 25 to establish, in the words of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, a “second Israel” in the Middle East. I24news...

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Iraqi security forces and the Iranian-backed Hashd al-Shaabi, an umbrella group of Shiite militia, on Sunday night launched an attack on Kirkuk from two front lines, Kurdish news outlet Rudaw reported Monday. The Iraqi army and Shiite militia fired on Peshmerga troops, using advanced weapons and vehicles supplied to them...

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An exclusive investigation by Kurdish broadcaster Rudaw has revealed that Iranian-backed Shiite militia group Hashd al-Shaabi has trained hundreds of child soldiers in northern Iraq, in violation of international humanitarian law. Commanders of the Hashd al-Shaabi troops, also known as the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), performed the military training in...

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Israel’s Foreign Ministry has received thousands of messages from Iraq in support of Israel in the wake of the Temple Mount crisis triggered by a terrorist attack, with Iraqis saying they “recognize the State of Israel” and reject Palestinian terrorism. Reactions include criticism of “the hypocrisy of the Arab peoples,”...

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