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Showing posts with the label Militia Disarmament

Trump’s UN Address: Coercive Diplomacy and the Escalation with Iran

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Dr. Pshtiwan Faraj Trump’s UN address signals coercive diplomacy toward Iran, raising questions about escalation, deterrence, and the limits of pressure. Addressing the United Nations General Assembly , US President Donald Trump delivered a 37-minute speech that fused maximum-pressure rhetoric with a transactional timeline for regional diplomacy. Positioned between ongoing military friction in the Middle East and domestic political calculations, Trump framed Washington’s strategy toward Tehran in stark binary terms: total destruction or a sweeping economic deal. Beneath the theatrical ultimatum lies a complex geopolitical calculus where domestic American politics, multilateral institution-building, and high-tech defense priorities intersect. For Tehran and regional capitals, the address signals both the limits of American interventionism and the precarious window for post-election negotiations. +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | ...
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Iraqi Factions Want to Hand Over Their Weapons to the State: An Initiative or a Maneuver?

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Iraq’s Iran-Backed Militias Split Apart: Five Groups Ready to Disarm as Kataib Hezbollah Defies Baghdad and Washington By Dr. Pshtiwan Faraj Sulaimani, Iraqi Kurdistan — 27 May 2026 As Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi forms a new government under intense US pressure, major Shiite armed factions appear willing to surrender weapons to the Iraqi state — but hardline groups aligned closest to Iran are refusing, exposing deep fractures inside Iraq’s powerful militia network. In Iraq, with the arrival of a new government led by Ali al-Zaidi, there is talk of five Iraqi factions intending to disarm and hand over their weapons to the state, while two factions, al-Nujaba and Kataib Hezbollah, refuse. Iraq... Five Factions Move to Disarm, Two Refuse: In Response to US Conditions Sources close to the "Coordination Framework" forces and the factions operating under its umbrella report that five armed factions do not object to disarming and handing over their weapons to the Iraqi governm...
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The Gulf’s strategic chokepoint crisis | Kurdish Policy Analysis

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  Dr. Pshtiwan Faraj Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Iran face a widening struggle over pipelines, Hormuz and Bab al-Mandab, reshaping Gulf geopolitics and energy security. The Middle East is entering a more dangerous phase of the Iran–Gulf confrontation in which the central strategic issue is no longer simply the exchange of missiles and drones, but the control of the region’s energy and maritime arteries . In the space of days, Saudi Arabia has faced attacks launched from Iraqi territory against its East-West oil pipeline, Qatar has publicly backed Riyadh’s restraint, Iran and the Gulf states are preparing another diplomatic effort in Oman, and Iran-aligned Houthi forces have seized strategically important territory around the Bab al-Mandab Strait. Taken together, these developments reveal an emerging regional contest over whether energy can continue to move through the Gulf and Red Sea despite the wider war. The most consequential development for Iraq and the Gulf is the reported drone a...
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Lindsey Graham Passing Reshapes Republican Foreign Policy—and Raises Questions for the Kurds

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  By Dr. Pshtiwan Faraj | Kurdish Policy Analysis The sudden death of one of Washington's most influential Republican hawks removes a powerful congressional advocate for Ukraine, Israel, a hardline Iran policy, and Kurdish aspirations in the Middle East. The death of Senator Lindsey Graham removes one of Washington's strongest advocates for the Kurds, Ukraine, Israel, and a tougher US policy toward Iran. Lindsey Graham's Sudden Death Leaves a Strategic Void in Washington WASHINGTON — Senator Lindsey Graham , one of the Republican Party's most influential foreign policy voices and one of President Donald Trump's closest congressional allies, has died at the age of 71 following a sudden illness, according to a statement released by his office. His unexpected death comes at a particularly volatile moment in American and Middle Eastern politics. Graham had recently traveled to Ukraine, remained deeply involved in congressional debates over Iran and Israel, and was p...
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Kurdistan in the emerging world order: from autonomy to strategic agency | Kurdish Policy Analysis

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 Dr. Pshtiwan Faraj Kurdistan must turn geopolitical importance into strategic agency as the global order shifts toward multipolarity, competition and transactional power. The international order is changing, but the most important question is not whether the existing order is “collapsing.” The more consequential question is which institutions, practices and power relationships will replace the assumptions that governed international politics after the Cold War. A recent English School analysis of the emerging world order offers an important framework for understanding this transformation by examining changes in the balance of power, diplomacy, the use of force, great-power management and the global market.  For Kurdistan, this debate is not an abstract argument among international relations scholars. The Kurdistan Region of Iraq has spent three decades developing political autonomy within an international environment shaped by American primacy, European engagement, regional ...
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