Abdullah M. Al-Taie

By Abdullah M. Al-Taie — Issue 2, page 148. Read this article in the interactive edition

The Iraqi government has recently intensified its rhetoric about its intention to “restrict arms to the state” once the withdrawal of the US-led international coalition forces from Iraq is completed by September 30 of this year, alongside Baghdad’s repeated rejection of Iraq being used as a launchpad for attacks on regional states or as an arena for proxy war. These…

The U.S.–Israeli war against Iran has once again repositioned Iraq at the center of regional confrontation, though this time within a context far more complex than the traditional framework of rivalry between Washington and Tehran. The war revealed that Iraq is no longer merely an open arena of competing influence; rather, it has become a concentrated model of the crisis…

It comes as little surprise that Iraq has become one of the central arenas of confrontation and a direct theater in today’s regional war. The 2003 U.S. invasion, the expansion of Iranian influence, the scale of external interventions, and the overlap of local and regional actors on its territory have collectively transformed Iraq into a contested space, both a battlefield…

Muscat, the capital of Oman, hosted last Friday a new round of “indirect” U.S.–Iran negotiations—an attempt to identify common ground that might pave the way for an agreement capable of defusing a potential war. Such a confrontation could erupt if the United States were to launch a military strike against Iran, a move that would likely compel Tehran to respond…

There are entrenched “rules of the game” that Iraqi political forces have consistently sought to institutionalize with every electoral cycle—rules that have ultimately produced a political system some scholars classify as a form of competitive authoritarianism. Iraq’s political arena has thus become confined to a limited set of actors who continuously reproduce the status quo, reducing elections to little more…

Tomorrow, Tuesday, Iraqis will head to the polls to participate in the country’s sixth parliamentary elections since 2003, amid mounting expectations and assessments pointing to the likelihood of the lowest voter turnout since the first elections held in 2005. This comes at a highly sensitive and complex moment for both the country and the wider region, reflecting the magnitude of…

The Iraqi context has always been “exceptional” by nature, with elections typically held under sensitive and pivotal circumstances in the life of the country and its political system in particular. The upcoming elections, scheduled for November 11, may not differ much from these descriptions; however, they come amid an extremely complex environment in which domestic dynamics intertwine with regional transformations…

This material was published in the second issue of the Jordanian Politics and Society magazine (JPS). In recent years, Jordanian-Iraqi relations have witnessed a qualitative leap, following a long period marked by much doubt and caution between the two sides. While it cannot be said that the development of this relationship has completely eliminated the previous situation, it has made…

None of the experts and researchers generally anticipated that the recent escalation against Hezbollah in Lebanon would lead to the assassination of its Secretary-General, Hassan Nasrallah. This figure holds considerable weight, symbolism, and influence, making it widely expected that he resides in a secure and fortified location, or that Israel would refrain from escalating to the extent of deciding to…