As new Iraq prime minister takes helm, public salaries on chopping block
With its financial outlook darkening by the day, Iraq is considering slashing its massive public payroll — an unpopular move likely to renew protests as a new government takes the helm. The new premier Mustafa Kadhemi, Iraq's 53-year-old former spy chief, took office early Thursday ...
U.S. and Iran inch toward a clash in Iraq
Tehran is seeking military leverage while Washington wants to capitalize on overlapping crises.
Biden’s call to ease Iran sanctions fits a bad pattern
When it comes to the Middle East, the former vice president has a history of endorsing woolly and reckless ideas.
Iraq faces calamity as oil prices crash amid protests and coronavirus crisis
Between plummeting oil prices, political deadlock and reduced global appetite for a bailout, Iraq is on the cusp of financial calamity that could force austerity measures and renew anti-government protests. But officials appear remarkably optimistic, a view that experts described as being "in denial" given ...
U.S. bombs Iran-backed militia in Iraq after attack kills U.S. and U.K. troops
The United States waged a series of precision airstrikes on Thursday against an Iran-backed militia in Iraq that it blamed for a major rocket attack a day earlier that killed two American troops and a 26-year-old British soldier. The U.S. strikes appeared limited in scope ...
First Iraqis catch coronavirus amid fear of Iran epidemic spillover
Iraq shut schools and universities on Tuesday and told citizens to avoid mass gatherings, as it rushed to prevent the spread of the coronavirus from its neighbour Iran, hit by what appears to be the worst outbreak outside of China. An Iraqi family of four ...
Julian Assange is wanted for crimes that put at risk the lives of people in Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan who had helped the West, some of whom later disappeared, said a lawyer acting for the United States in its bid to extradite him. Almost a ...
White House tells Congress killing of Iran's Soleimani was response to past — not imminent — attacks
President Donald Trump ordered a drone strike that killed a top Iranian military commander last month in response to past attacks, the White House said in a memo released on Friday, despite previous administration assertions that it was due to an imminent threat. As required ...
U.S. Senate votes to restrain Trump on Iran but faces his veto
The U.S. Senate voted Thursday to rein in President Donald Trump from attacking Iran, sharply rebuking his foreign policy despite a week earlier acquitting him in his impeachment trial. Eight senators of Trump's Republican Party, which enjoys a majority, bucked their leadership to join Democrats ...
Over 100 U.S. troops diagnosed with brain injuries from January Iran missile attack
The U.S. military is preparing to report a more than 50 percent jump in cases of traumatic brain injury stemming from Iran's missile attack on a base in Iraq last month, U.S. officials told Reuters on Monday. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity ...
MSDF to not take part in any exercise of force by the U.S. in Middle East: Abe
A Maritime Self-Defense Force unit currently deployed in the Middle East will not take part in any exercise of force by the U.S. military there, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Tuesday. While the MSDF unit will provide information to the U.S. military around once in ...
Protests against political elite greet new Iraqi leader Mohammad Allawi
New Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammad Allawi appealed to downtrodden Iraqis for their support on Saturday hours after his appointment by President Barham Salih, but protesters were already rejecting the head of government as a stooge of the political elite. In Baghdad and southern cities, demonstrators ...
