Next month general elections are due to take place in Iraq. It will be the fourth time in 15 years that Iraqis vote in multi-party elections since the toppling of Saddam Hussein’s Baath regime in April 2003. Undoubtedly this is a remarkable achievement in a country that, prior to 2003, last witnessed a multi-party general elections, albeit with limitations, in 1957 under the monarchy which was overthrown by a military coup in 1958. However, Iraq is still far from establishing peace, stability, democracy and prosperity. The Iraqi people were liberated from the previous ruthless regime but they had to witness more sufferings, albeit of a different nature, in the past 15 years.
The regime change of 2003 was possible thanks to the invasion of Iraq by an international coalition force headed by the Unites States. The military Operation Iraqi Freedom swiftly lead to the collapse of the Iraqi armed forces. A series of measures followed to decide how to run Iraq in the absence of the pre-invasion authorities. The international Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) was established and then US president George W Bush appointed Paul Bremer as its leader with unlimited authority. Soon Mr Bremer approved the creation of the interim Iraqi Governing Council (IGC). The council members were chosen by Mr Bremer from among Iraqi groups and individuals who had supported the American invasion of Iraq.
Hopes to create the basis for establishing a free peaceful and democratic Iraq were quickly diminished by the emergence of a destructive insurgency against the coalition forces and their Iraqi allies. The insurgency gradually turned into a Shia-Sunni conflict that by 2006 threatened to engulf Iraq in a sectarian civil war. But thanks to a combined effort, the US-led international coalition and the newly established Iraqi forces, supported by Kurdish Peshmerga in the north and Arab tribes in the south, helped to avoid civil war.
However even during that period, political changes in post-Saddam Iraq were taking place to shape the future of the country. In 2004, the CPA formally handed over authority to a transitional Iraqi government. A National Assembly was elected with the specific task of drafting a permanent constitution. In 2005, the drafted constitution was approved by popular referendum and the first general elections were held.
The newly elected parliament elected the president and the prime minister. Real power was, and still is, concentrated in the hands of the latter, including the post of commander-in-chief of the armed forces. A consensus by all political groups was agreed upon to allocate the post of prime minister to the Shias, president to the Kurds and parliament speaker to the Sunnis. The irony is that the consensus based on sectarian divide, which was meant to be a solution to stabilise the political and security situation, turned out to be the heart of all problems. The status quo opened the door for regional powers to interfere in Iraq’s affairs, some less, others more so.
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Read more:
Iraq: A war of delusion sold on a false premise
Fifteen years after the fall of Saddam, much hangs on next month's elections
It is not the Iraq I expected, or wanted
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Different groups in Iraq allied themselves with different regional powers. Undoubtedly Iran emerged as a significant player in Iraq. Many outsiders fail to appreciate the nature and extend of Iran’s role in Iraq. Iraq is more and more controlled by a dominating Shia religious and political class closely tied to Iran’s Islamic Republic. The Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF) are formed on purely Shia ideology doctrine similar to that of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps. No wonder it is closely advised by Iran’s powerful Al Quds Brigade commander Qasim Sulaimani. Many commanders of PMF, including its head Hadi Al Amiri and his deputy Abu Mahdi Al Muhandis served in the past alongside Mr Sulaimani in the Revolutionary Guard. The PMF is now considered by law an independent military force parallel to the Iraqi army. Following last year’s controversial independent referendum the PMF was used as the main force to confront the Kurdish Peshmerga and took back Kirkuk and many other parts of the disputed territories that were under Kurdish rule.
Despite the recent minimisation of tension between the central government and the federal Kurdistan region (KR), a mountain of issues remain disputed between the two sides.
The Kurds are not the only component of Iraq who have serious problems with the Shia-dominant ruling establishment. Sunni Arabs feel they are marginalised and treated as second class citizens. Remarkably during the process of drafting the constitution in 2005, the representatives of Sunni Arabs strongly opposed the article stating that Iraq is a federal state. But now desperation has driven them to make a U-turn by demanding their own Sunni federal region similar to the KR. However, they don’t go as far as a majority of the Kurds opting for independence from Iraq. In other words, neither Kurds nor Sunnis would like to change the status quo by granting them more power to self-rule.
So quo vadis Iraq? Fifteen years after Operation Iraq Freedom, Iraqis still ask the burning question about the future of their country: can a united Iraq survive? Last year a report on the future of Iraq was published by the Iraq Task Force, a group founded a year earlier by the Washington-based Atlantic Council. The group consisted of many politicians, academics and experts. In conclusion, the authors of the report offered a series of recommendations to the US administration. One recommendation stated: "It is in the interest of our national security that we do our best to help bring about an Iraq that is independent, stable and prosperous: one at peace with its neighbours; one reflecting legitimate and effective governance and one strongly inclined to cooperate closely with the United States in the Middle East and beyond."
Many Iraqis are not so optimistic and not convinced that such a goal can be achieved without changing the status quo. And change is not coming at least for the next few years. For the fourth time, next month’s elections will be fought between political blocks formed on sectarian bases.
Kamran Karadaghi is an Iraqi Kurdish journalist, political writer and the former chief of staff to former Iraqi president Jalal Talabani from 2005 to 2007
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COMPANY PROFILE
Name: HyperSpace
Started: 2020
Founders: Alexander Heller, Rama Allen and Desi Gonzalez
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Entertainment
Number of staff: 210
Investment raised: $75 million from investors including Galaxy Interactive, Riyadh Season, Sega Ventures and Apis Venture Partners
SPECS%3A%20Polestar%203
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Difference between fractional ownership and timeshare
Although similar in its appearance, the concept of a fractional title deed is unlike that of a timeshare, which usually involves multiple investors buying “time” in a property whereby the owner has the right to occupation for a specified period of time in any year, as opposed to the actual real estate, said John Peacock, Head of Indirect Tax and Conveyancing, BSA Ahmad Bin Hezeem & Associates, a law firm.
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RESULT
West Brom 2 Liverpool 2
West Brom: Livermore (79'), Rondón (88' )
Liverpool: Ings (4'), Salah (72')
WHAT IS A BLACK HOLE?
1. Black holes are objects whose gravity is so strong not even light can escape their pull
2. They can be created when massive stars collapse under their own weight
3. Large black holes can also be formed when smaller ones collide and merge
4. The biggest black holes lurk at the centre of many galaxies, including our own
5. Astronomers believe that when the universe was very young, black holes affected how galaxies formed
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From Europe to the Middle East, economic success brings wealth - and lifestyle diseases
A rise in obesity figures and the need for more public spending is a familiar trend in the developing world as western lifestyles are adopted.
One in five deaths around the world is now caused by bad diet, with obesity the fastest growing global risk. A high body mass index is also the top cause of metabolic diseases relating to death and disability in Kuwait, Qatar and Oman – and second on the list in Bahrain.
In Britain, heart disease, lung cancer and Alzheimer’s remain among the leading causes of death, and people there are spending more time suffering from health problems.
The UK is expected to spend $421.4 billion on healthcare by 2040, up from $239.3 billion in 2014.
And development assistance for health is talking about the financial aid given to governments to support social, environmental development of developing countries.
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Thank You for Banking with Us
Director: Laila Abbas
Starring: Yasmine Al Massri, Clara Khoury, Kamel El Basha, Ashraf Barhoum
Rating: 4/5
Jigra
Starring: Alia Bhatt, Vedang Raina, Manoj Pahwa, Harsh Singh
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COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Company%20Profile
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COMPANY%20PROFILE
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How to protect yourself when air quality drops
Install an air filter in your home.
Close your windows and turn on the AC.
Shower or bath after being outside.
Wear a face mask.
Stay indoors when conditions are particularly poor.
If driving, turn your engine off when stationary.
APPLE IPAD MINI (A17 PRO)
Display: 21cm Liquid Retina Display, 2266 x 1488, 326ppi, 500 nits
Chip: Apple A17 Pro, 6-core CPU, 5-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine
Storage: 128/256/512GB
Main camera: 12MP wide, f/1.8, digital zoom up to 5x, Smart HDR 4
Front camera: 12MP ultra-wide, f/2.4, Smart HDR 4, full-HD @ 25/30/60fps
Biometrics: Touch ID, Face ID
Colours: Blue, purple, space grey, starlight
In the box: iPad mini, USB-C cable, 20W USB-C power adapter
Price: From Dh2,099
SPEC SHEET
Display: 6.8" edge quad-HD dynamic Amoled 2X, Infinity-O, 3088 x 1440, 500ppi, HDR10 , 120Hz
Processor: 4nm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1/Exynos 2200, 8-core
Memory: 8/12GB RAM
Storage: 128/256/512GB/1TB
Platform: Android 12
Main camera: quad 12MP ultra-wide f/2.2, 108MP wide f/1.8, 10MP telephoto f/4.9, 10MP telephoto 2.4; Space Zoom up to 100x, auto HDR, expert RAW
Video: 8K@24fps, 4K@60fps, full-HD@60fps, HD@30fps, super slo-mo@960fps
Front camera: 40MP f/2.2
Battery: 5000mAh, fast wireless charging 2.0 Wireless PowerShare
Connectivity: 5G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.2, NFC
I/O: USB-C
SIM: single nano, or nano and SIM, nano and nano, eSIM/nano and nano
Colours: burgundy, green, phantom black, phantom white, graphite, sky blue, red
Price: Dh4,699 for 128GB, Dh5,099 for 256GB, Dh5,499 for 512GB; 1TB unavailable in the UAE
The National Archives, Abu Dhabi
Founded over 50 years ago, the National Archives collects valuable historical material relating to the UAE, and is the oldest and richest archive relating to the Arabian Gulf.
Much of the material can be viewed on line at the Arabian Gulf Digital Archive - https://www.agda.ae/en