MESOP MIDEAST WATCH: Turkey’s recent bombardment amounts to declaration of war: Mazloum Abdi

Rudaw  2.2.2022 – ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Turkey’s bombardment of Derik town in northeast Syria (Rojava) in recent days is the declaration of war against the Kurdish forces, said Mazloum Abdi, general commander of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), late Wednesday.

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MESOP MIDEAST WATCH – Red Chinese soft power in Iraq: Speak the language, get jobs

Associated Press 30-1-2022 – ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – In a classroom in northern Iraq, Zhiwei Hu presides over his students as a conductor would an orchestra. He cues with a question, and the response from his students resounds in perfect, fluent Chinese.

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MESOP MIDEAST WATCH: KDP &PUK in Sadir’s Chess Game – KURDISTAN

January 29th, 2022 Dlawer Ala’AldeenPresident of MERI

Muqtada Al-Sadir, the Shiite Cleric Grandmaster, is playing to win; whatever the expense. In the build-up to the game, the Sunnis got their act together and seized the opportunity to become the main winners of the first round. However, the Kurds entered the fight on one leg, lost sight of the bigger picture and intensified their internal power rivalry.

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MESOP MIDEAST WATCH: KDP &PUK in Sad‘rs Schachpartie

  1. Januar 2022Dlawer Ala’AldeenPräsident von MERI

Muqtada Al-Sadr, der schiitische klerikale Großmeister, spielt, um zu gewinnen; was auch immer die Kosten sind. Im Vorfeld des Spiels haben sich die Sunniten zusammengerauft und die Chance genutzt, die Hauptsieger der ersten Runde zu werden. Die Kurden traten jedoch mit einem Bein in den Kampf ein, verloren das Gesamtbild aus den Augen und verschärften ihre interne Machtrivalität.

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MESOP MIDEAST WATCH – PM Barzani Welcomes Extension of German Mission in Iraq, Kurdistan Region

28-1-2022 ERBIL — Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani has welcomed the decision by the German parliament to renew the country’s military mission in Iraq and the Kurdistan Region.

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MESOP MIDEAST WATCH : How Will Erdogan Treat the Kurds Going Forward?  Delivering the Kurdish Voice to Washington   

How Will Erdogan Treat the Kurds Going Forward?  Washington Kurdish Institute  

Ely Sannes January 25, 2022

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MESOP MIDEAST WATCH: PUK, KDP split on their approach to securing Iraqi presidency

26-1-2022 RUDAW – Iraq’s two largest Kurdish parties have taken to counter statements and accusations of blame as both parties present their own candidates for the position of the Iraqi presidency, with only two weeks remaining for the constitutional deadline of electing the country’s new president.

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MESOP MIDEAST WATCH BY JONATHAN SPYER

Iranian attacks in Iraq reflect weakness, disarray

January 24, 2022 by jonathanspyer  – Jerusalem Post, 21/1

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MESOP MIDEAST WATCH:  Iraqi government formation process on brief hold
 
22-1-2022 MESOP  – AL MONITOR –  Iraq’s Federal Supreme Court will decide on Jan. 25 whether the election of Mohammed al-Halbousi on Jan. 9 to return as Speaker of the Council of Representatives (or parliament) is valid. The speakership is held by a representative from the Sunni parties. Halbousi’s “Progress” party won 37 seats, second only to Iraqi populist Shiite Cleric Muqtada Sadr’s party winning 73 seats. Hassan Ali Ahmed has the background on the vote here.

The expectation is that Halbousi’s selection will stand and the process of government formation will resume. The parliament will then have about 20 days to choose a president from the Kurdish parties. Fifteen days after that, the president will designate a prime minister (a Shiite), appointed from the largest bloc, to form a government.

The current president, Barham Salih, has been nominated by the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan Party; the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) has nominated former Finance and Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari. The KDP has 31 seats in the new Iraqi parliament; the PUK has 18. The custom has been for the PUK to hold the Iraqi presidency and the KDP to hold the Kurdistan Region presidency; the current Kurdistan Region president is Nechirvan Barzani from the KDP.

So far the Iraqi government formation process has taken three months since elections on October 21, 2021. The previous timeframe from elections to government was five months in 2018, and eight months in 2010.

Pro-Iran militias increase attacks in capital…

In an escalation of violence many see as connected to the government formation process, Shiite armed groups close to Iran, and who are linked to parties which lost support in Iraq’s October elections, have launched attacks in Baghdad over the past week.

As Shelly Kittleson reports from the Iraqi capital, “two Kurdish-owned banks in Baghdad were targeted by attacks using explosives on Jan. 16 in which a woman and child were injured. Iran-linked armed groups had recently increased threats against and attacks on the Kurdistan Region of Iraq and those associated with it. The latest in a long string of attacks by these groups on Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone occurred on Jan. 13 and also injured an Iraqi woman and child.”

Ali Hashem has the inside story here at Amwaj on the visit to Iraq last week of Ismail Ghaani, commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps Quds Force, in seeking to quell divisions among the disparate forces in the Iraqi “

 

MESOP MIDEAST WATCH:  FULL SITU REPORT IRAQ BY SOUFAN – RIFTS COMPLICATE IRAQ’S GOVERNANCE &REGIONAL ALIGNMENTS

THE SOUFAN CENTER  21-1-2022   

  • The process of selecting the next Iraqi leaders has begun and will have a significant impact upon Iraq’s regional and global alignments.

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