The demise of Iraq’s Al-Iraqiya Alliance, at threat of marginalisation, would remove the country’s sole credible political representative of a very important community: the secular, non-sectarian middle class.
01 May 2013
Standoff between Sunni protesters and govt intensified in last week of April, increasing fears that political crisis could evolve into conflict between govt forces and protesters’ armed factions. ...
To overcome Iraq’s current political crisis and prevent the breakdown of the entire post-2003 order, Prime Minister Maliki and his opponents both will have to agree to painful compromises.
The political standoff between Iraq’s Kurds and the government in Baghdad has left pressing disputes over oil and territories unresolved, intensifying the likelihood of conflict.
Spreading corruption threatens to undermine the significant progress Iraq has made toward reducing violence and strengthening state institutions.
The main threat to Iraq’s political order today emanates not from an organised insurgency but from within the political system itself.
As a rule, Iraq’s post-Saddam elections have tended to magnify pre-existing negative trends.
Violence in much of Iraq is at lower levels than in years past but, in Ninewa, the carnage continues.
As sectarian violence in Iraq has ebbed over the past year, a new and potentially just as destructive political conflict has arisen between the federal government and the Kurdistan regional government in Erbil.
On 31 January, Iraqis will head to the polls in fourteen of eighteen governorates to elect new provincial councils.
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For detailed background information on the situation in Iraq, see our conflict history.
For more information and resources on the situation in Iraq, visit our Iraq and the Kurds: The Struggle over Kirkuk page.