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Showing posts with the label US-Iraq Relations

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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Victoria Taylor’s Iraq visit: what Washington’s new Iraq test looks like from Baghdad

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Victoria Taylor’s Iraq visit reveals Washington’s emerging priorities: sovereignty, militia control, reform, energy and Baghdad-Erbil relations. By Dr. Pshtiwan Faraj A senior Atlantic Council delegation’s meetings with Iraq’s prime minister, president, judiciary, foreign minister and Kurdish leadership reveal where the next U.S.-Iraq relationship is heading: state authority, militia control, economic alignment, and Baghdad-Erbil relations. Victoria J. Taylor’s latest visit to Iraq was more than another think-tank engagement with Baghdad’s political class. Over several days spanning late August and early September, the director of the Atlantic Council’s Iraq Initiative and Syria Project met with some of Iraq’s most consequential political and institutional actors, including Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi, President Nizar Amidi, Supreme Judicial Council President Faiq Zidan, Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein, and Kurdistan Democratic Party President Masoud Barzani. The meetings covered U.S.-...
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Iraq can no longer play both sides: the time for strategic ambiguity is over

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  By Dr. Pshtiwan Faraj Kurdish Policy Analysis Prime Minister Ali Falah Al-Zaidi faces the defining challenge of modern Iraq: either establish the state's monopoly over foreign policy and security or risk allowing Iraq to become the battlefield of someone else's war. Iraq's balancing act between Iran and the United States is becoming unsustainable. Prime Minister Al-Zaidi faces a defining strategic choice. Iraq Can No Longer Play Both Sides: The Time for Strategic Ambiguity Is Over For nearly two decades, successive Iraqi governments have attempted the impossible. They have sought to maintain close strategic relations with the United States while simultaneously accommodating Iran's expanding political and military influence. For years, this balancing act appeared manageable. Baghdad welcomed American investment, intelligence, military training, and diplomatic support while tolerating powerful armed factions aligned with Tehran. The policy was often described as ...
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Can Zaidi succeed where others failed?

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By Dr. Pshtiwan Faraj | Kurdish Policy Analysis   New agreements with Washington, militia reform, and shifting US priorities could redefine Iraq's political landscape while forcing the Kurdistan Region to rethink its strategic position Ali al-Zaidi's Washington visit signals a shift from security cooperation to economic partnership with the US, raising major implications for Iraq, militias, and the Kurdistan Region. A New Phase in US-Iraq Relations? Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi's recent visit to Washington may prove to be one of the most consequential diplomatic engagements between Iraq and the United States since the defeat of the Islamic State. Speaking on The New Region's GeoSpace podcast, Kurdish scholar and political analyst Dr. Mohammed Shareef argued that the visit represents more than a routine diplomatic exchange. Instead, it signals a strategic transition in US-Iraq relations—from a partnership dominated by military cooperation to one increasingly c...
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Iran’s War on Iraq’s Oil Industry

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  Iran-aligned militias in Iraq have been attacking the country’s oil sector while the world’s attention focuses on the Strait of Hormuz. By Dr. Pshtiwan Faraj, SULAIMANI,   Kurdish Policy Analysis , April 22--  Iran sponsors a  network of armed groups  in  Iraq  that operate under an Iraqi security institution despite professing loyalty to  Iran ’s supreme leader. At its core are six  US-designated  terror organizations that promote the Islamic Republic’s interests and take the lead in confronting the American presence in the country and the region. These militias have  conducted  hundreds of attacks in Iraq and against  neighboring  countries during  the war between the United States, Israel, and Iran . Many of these attacks focused on Iraq’s energy sector, the revenue of which accounts for  90 percent  of the Iraqi federal budget in their own country. Even once these attacks stop, it will take y...
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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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