Iraq; Calls for international community to prevent genocide of Kurds after Turkish invasion of northern Iraq

The Kurdistan National Congress (KNK) issued an urgent appeal for the international community to “stop an imminent massacre and genocide” after Turkish troops invaded Iraqi Kurdistan on Saturday.

Soldiers dropped via helicopter into the so-called Medya defence zones in the mountainous Duhok province, which borders Turkey, following a series of air strikes.

READ MORE AT; Calls for international community to prevent genocide of Kurds after Turkish invasion of northern Iraq | Morning Star

Iraq: Covid hospital fire: 82 dead after 'oxygen tank explodes'

At least 82 people have been killed in a fire at a hospital treating coronavirus patients in the capital of Iraq, Baghdad.

More than 100 others were injured in the blaze, which erupted at the Ibn Khatib hospital on Saturday night.

Read more at: Iraq Covid hospital fire: 82 dead after 'oxygen tank explodes' - BBC News

Iraq: Scores detained as authorities open fire on protesters as Kurdish uprising continues

With the Kurdish uprising continuing to spread, military vehicles prowled the city’s streets and heavily armed militiamen were deployed in a show of force as large crowds formed in defiance of a ban on unauthorised demonstrations.

Read more at: Scores detained as authorities open fire on protesters as Kurdish uprising continues | Morning Star

Middle East - Iraq: US to pull back 2,200 troops from Iraq, Pentagon confirms…but several thousand more still to stay - by Jennifer Griffin

The drawdown in Iraq was long unticipated and likely to be confirmed soon by Donald Trump along with a similar move in Afghanistan. The US president has long expressed desire to reduce foreign deployments. He reiterated the promise to reduce military presence in Iraq last month during a visit to the country.

The announcement is likely to fuel heated political debate in the US, where Trump stands accused of being disrespectful to the national military. Last week a story in the Atlantic magazine claimed he called American soldiers killed in World War I “losers” and “suckers” as he refused to visit a military cemetery in France.

Trump angrily rejected the accusations and went on an Eisenhower-esque verbal attack against top military commanders accusing them of cozying up to defense contractors.

Read more at: US to pull back 2,200 troops from Iraq, Pentagon confirms…but several thousand more still to stay — RT World News

Middle East: Pandemic 'shock' could destabilise Middle East, EU fears - by Andrew Rettman

The economic "shock" of the pandemic could aggravate crises on Europe's southern fringe, EU diplomats fear, amid other concerns on Israeli annexation.

"From a political perspective, the impact of the pandemic may exacerbate the many existing crises affecting the [Middle East and North Africa] region," the EU foreign service said in an internal report on 8 May, seen by EUobserver.

The Syria war "may also see another wave of refugees towards Europe", it noted. "The tragedy of the conflict only deteriorates in Yemen," it added.

Other countries in the region also risked instability due to the "triple parallel shock on [falling] revenues, from oil, tourism, and remittances", the EU report warned.

"All this may result in increased risk of social upheavals, jeopardising security and stability in the region" and create "tensions between secularists and Islamists," it said.

"The plummeting oil price will have huge impact in Algeria," it noted.
"Iraq, due to the combination of political instability, insecurity, and low oil prices stands out as a country the EU should focus its attention on," it said.

"The pandemic can only worsen things in the protracted Libya crisis", it said.

Read more at: Pandemic 'shock' could destabilise Middle East, EU fears

Iran-US Relations: Is the US On the Verge of a War with Iran?

Trump: we will help Saudi Arabia
in their struggle against Iran

"The main question is not whether Soleimani is responsible for carnage in the region (he is) or whether he has blood on his hands (he does), but whether Soleimani’s assassination increases or decreases the risk of a wider conflict between Washington and Tehran. Does this strike put American soldiers, diplomats, and citizens in the region at risk?"

The answers are as obvious as the day is long. The strike on Soleimani is a gigantic leap forward on the escalation ladder, a move so dramatic that Iran will be forced to respond. And it will do so at a time and place of its choosing. The 60,000-70,000 U.S. military forces in the Middle East are now all potential targets of Iranian retaliation, the extent to which Washington can’t fully estimate. The State Department’s travel advisory urging all U.S. citizens to leave Iraq immediately is an indication that the Trump administration recognizes that Americans on Iraqi soil could very well be sitting ducks for some kind of violent response.

Note EU-Digest: The Washington Post  reported that several European diplomats said Friday that they were not aware of any warning from Washington ahead of the strike on Soleimani in Baghdad, though the mission was almost certain to increase the security risk for hundreds of European troops and for other European citizens in the region.The Netherlands government advised all its citizens in Iraq to leave the country.Once again as he did with pulling troops out of Syria it shows he does not have any respect for his Allies and the lives of their troops, who have always supported the US, and put their lives at risk. it is high time the EU tells the US Trump Administration that " the party is over", and that they should start fighting their own ridiculous wars around the world. 

Read more at: Are We On the Verge of a War with Iran? | The National Interest

Iran-US relations: US kills top Iranian General Soleimani in Baghdad airstrike

The United States has killed Qassem Soleimani, leader of Iran's elite Quds Force, in an airstrike in Baghdad, the Pentagon has confirmed. The move is a potential turning point in the Middle East.

Note EU-Digest: The US startend to rock the boat and go on this dangerous route of confrontation, when Trump pulled the US out of the International Nuclear Treaty signed by China, the EU, Iran, Russia and the US, which can now easily turn for the worse and add to the Trump Administration many disasterous foreign policy decision.

Read more at:
https://www.dw.com/en/us-kills-top-iranian-general-soleimani-in-baghdad-airstrike/a-51873465

USA - Middle East: Trump aides call U.S. strikes on Iraq and Syria 'successful,' warn of potential further action

U.S. officials said on Sunday that air strikes in Iraq and Syria against an Iran-backed militia group were successful, but warned that "additional actions" may still be taken in the region to defend U.S. interests.

Read more at :
https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-iraq-security-usa/trump-aides-call-u-s-strikes-on-iraq-and-syria-successful-warn-of-potential-further-action-idUKKBN1YX0GL

Iraq: Protesters force shutdown of Nassiriya oilfield in southern Iraq

Protesters force shutdown of Nassiriya oilfield in southern Iraq: ,

IRAN-US Relations: It looks like US (Trump) and Israël (Netanyahu) preparing a war with Iran

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo makes surprise trip to Iraq. War with Iran?

Ready more at:
https://p.dw.com/p/3I6za

EU ASYLUM LAW: EU granted 500,000 people asylum protection in 2017

EU member states as well as Norway, Iceland and Switzerland granted protection status to 538,000 asylum seekers in 2017, according to new data released by Eurostat recently.

Another 24,000 refugees were resettled in the region last year.

Last year's asylum seeker figures represent a 25% drop from 2016, when 710,000 asylum seekers qualified for international protection in the bloc.

Two forms of protection are offered under EU law: refugee status — for people fleeing persecution, and subsidiary protection — for those who face serious harm if they return to their country of origin, and who don’t qualify as refugees. But protection may also be given for humanitarian reasons, such as on grounds of ill health or if the person is an unaccompanied minor.

Around a third of such asylum seekers in Europe came from Syria last year, followed by Afghan citizens (19%) and Iraqis (12%).

Note EU-Digest:The Eurostat figures in this report are not very clear. 

According to the data listed in this re, a third (33.%) of asylum seekers come from Syria, followed by Afghanistan with 19% and Iraq with 12%. Added together 64%. 

Where do the rest of the asylum seekers (36%) come from? 

Probably a large number of them from Africa, who come to Libya by illegal means to make the crossing to Europe. In our  opinion, these are mainly "economic migrants" and not asylum seekers, just as most of them from Afghanistan and Iraq. It is also striking that many of the asylum seekers are young and able men . The EU and the governments of the Member States must, as far as their migrants and asylum policies are concerned do a far better job, Right now it can only be qualified as being barely functional.

READ MORE: EU granted 500,000 people asylum protection in 2017 | Euronews

EU ISIS PRISONERS IN IRAQ: EU adopts wait-and-see stance as European IS followers face execution

Dreams of living in an Islamic caliphate or dying as martyrs dashed, many former jihadi fighters from Europe now face the death penalty. Will the EU campaign to save citizens who reject its values?


"Kill lists" didn't eradicate them on the battlefield and local judicial systems won't resolve the dilemma created for the European Union by citizens who joined Islamic State and now are detained by the Iraqi government or Syrian militia groups. Most EU governments, some of which openly admit targeting their nationals with airstrikes, have no intention of bringing home almost anyone over the age of 10.

Having helped the Iraqi government push IS out of its territory, many EU leaders are relieved to hand over responsibility for holding and prosecuting the jihadis and their followers to the Iraqi judicial system. But Iraq says the death penalty is a likely sentence for those found to have been active fighters or even in key support roles. Vocal against capital punishment everywhere else in the world — even when former Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein was sentenced to die — the EU has been virtually silent on its own citizens' fates.

Pieter van Ostaeyen, a Belgian expert on jihad movements, elaborated on the EU's dilemma regarding the detainees. "Are we outsourcing their executions to Iraq? That's a moral issue," he told DW. "But then of course we have to face the fact that these guys who have been captured and would return do have to fit in again in our society and what are we going to do with them?"

Read more: EU adopts wait-and-see stance as European IS followers face execution | Europe| News and current affairs from around the continent | DW | 26.03.2018

Kurdistan: It's Time for an Independent Kurdistan - by Stanley Weiss

The dispossessed have become dangerously destabilizing. The overlooked can no longer be overlooked. And what was once a Middle Eastern flashpoint may yet become a safety valve for spiking regional tensions.

It will not be easy, but the uncertainty and plasticity in the region today offers an opportunity to secure a Kurdish homeland and remedy the capricious map-making of the early 20th century. Iraq is threatening to split into the pre-Iraq Sunni, Shia and Kurdish divisions of the Ottoman Empire, with the Kurds semi-independent and the Iran-allied Shiites ruling the Sunnis. Iran’s economy is in free-fall. Syria will soon have no central control and no choice. And while no country is eager to surrender a fifth of its population, Turkey would do well to get ahead of this issue — ending the vicious, ongoing war with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), saving countless lives and positioning themselves to reap the benefits of a long-term strategic alliance to counterbalance Iranian influence. Not to mention, membership in the European Union will forever be out of reach for a Turkey at war with itself.

For proof of what’s possible, look no further than Iraqi Kurdistan, a pro-American, pro-Israel and semi-autonomous parliamentary democracy most Americans have never heard of. Nurtured by an American no-fly zone in the aftermath of the first Gulf War, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) was established under the Iraqi Constitution in 2005, a stunning testament to the success of Muslim representative government. Of more than 4,800 American soldiers killed in the brutal battles for Iraq, not a single one has lost their life — and no foreigner has been kidnapped — within the borders of Iraqi Kurdistan. Boasting two international airports, a booming oil industry and a dawning respect for the rights of women, this 15,000 square-mile territory of nearly four million Kurds is the one part of President George W. Bush’s “Mission Accomplished” that was actually accomplished.

Building on this unanticipated success, the U.S. should rethink its previous opposition to an independent greater Kurdistan and recognize that the advantages of a friendly, democratic and strategically-positioned ally far outweigh the outdated assumption that the Kurds’ national liberation would result in regional conflagration. At this point, inaction is far more likely to provoke continued regional conflict. Whether that means calling for U.S.-brokered talks with Turkey or a temporary UN peacekeeping force, sanctions or scaled up foreign investment, the U.S. should make every effort to incentivize the consolidation and emergence of a single, stable, secure Kurdish homeland.

After a thousand years of turning a thousand blind eyes, the world can’t keep kicking the Kurdish can down the road. Somewhere along that bloodstained road to Damascus, the region needs to experience this epiphany — and soon. The first major protests in Syria began outside the Ummayad Mosque, Islam’s fourth-holiest site and the location of Saladin’s tomb. Saladin’s descendants, it seems, are on the march once more. These Kurds want to be heard. Will the U.S. - - and the world — listen?

Footnote by EU-Digest: Creating an independent Kurdistan, which stretches from the Mediterranean  to Iraq, along the borders of Syria, Turkey, Iran is the only solution to guarantee a lasting peace for countries who presently are opposing the creation of this independent Republic of Kurdistan. 

These include, Iran, Iraq , Syria and Turkey, which all have large local Kurdish populations.   

Once there is an independent Kurdistan, which has the global recognition and legitimacy of an independent state, it will be far easier for specially Turkey to deal with the PKK and other Kurdish factions at home,  by offering local Kurds to either stay or migrate to this new Republic of Kurdistan. A far better proposition than fighting these factions endlessly, which so far have had no results at all. 

The EU could in this case become a key player and broker in this process, together with the Russians and Americans. So far, unfortunately, they have not had the vision and willpower to do so. and made the weapons industry richer by the day

Read more: It's Time for an Independent Kurdistan | HuffPost

Middle East: French president to facilitate dialogue between Iraqi government and Kurds

Macron met Saturday in Paris with the prime minister of Iraq's Kurdish region, Nechirvan Barzani, amid a political and military standoff between the self-ruled northern Kurdish region and Baghdad since an independence referendum for the region.

In a joint news conference with Macron, Barzani said he is "ready to discuss" with Baghdad and agrees on a shared control between Kurdish and Baghdadi authorities over Iraq's borders with Turkey and Syria.

Last month, Iraq's top court paved the way for the Kurdish region to step back from its controversial independence referendum and annul the vote's results that overwhelmingly backed secession from Iraq.

Read more: French president to facilitate dialogue between Iraqi government and Kurds - France 24

Middle East: EU Offers Support after Quake Hits Iran, Iraq

In a message on Monday, November 13,  Mogherini extended condolences to the people and governments of Iran and Iraq over the earthquake, offering the EU’s “support in anyway considered useful”.

At least 348 people have been killed and 6,000 injured in the quake measuring 7.3 on the Richter scale.

Iranians, fighting time, hurried early Monday to dig out survivors trapped in dozens of collapsed buildings in the quake, whose epicenter was near Halabjah, southeast of Iraq’s Sulaymaniyah.

Hospitals in the western cities of Eslamabad-e-Gharb, Sarpol-e-Zahab, and Qasre-e-Shirin are packed with the injured people as the death toll is expected to rise.

 Read more: EU Offers Support after Quake Hits Iran, Iraq - Tasnim News Agency

Middle East: A 7.3 Magnitude Earthquake Jolts Area Around Iran-Iraq Border - by Nasser Karimi and Amir Vahdut

Damage after a 7.3 earthquake

A powerful 7.3 magnitude earthquake near the Iraq-Iran border killed over 400 people across both countries, sent residents fleeing their homes into the night and was felt as far away as the Mediterranean coast, authorities said Monday.11/13/2017

Iran’s western Kermanshah province bore the brunt of the temblor Sunday night, with authorities saying the quake killed 407 people in the country and injured 6,700. Kermanshah is a rural, mountainous region where residents rely mainly on farming.

In Iraq, the earthquake killed at least seven people and injured 535, all in the country’s northern Kurdish region, according to Iraq’s Interior Ministry.

The quake was centered 19 miles (31 kilometers) outside the eastern Iraqi city of Halabja, according to the most recent measurements from the U.S. Geological Survey. It struck at 9:48 p.m. Iran time, just as people began retiring for the night.

Read more: A.7.3 Magnitude Earthquake Jolts Area Around Iran-Iraq Border | Time

Kurdistan - Does the US really care about the Kurds? - by Hussain Abdul-Hussain

Of all the countries that announced their position toward the independence of Iraqi Kurdistan, America has probably have taken the most ambiguous stance. Officially, the U.S. opposes Kurdish independence and supports the “unity of Iraq”. 

Non-officially, Washington does not care about Iraqi unity.

In a session held under Chatham House rules at one of Washington’s prestigious think-tanks, a participant asked a top administration official about how the U.S. is allied with pro-Iranian militias on the Iraqi side of the Iraq-Syria border, but engages in clashes with other pro-Iranian militias on the Syrian side of the border.

The Trump administration official responded by saying that the U.S. government does not look at the Middle East as a set of nations, but rather “on a village-by-village” basis, with one defining principle, that any U.S. ally should participate in eradicating terrorism, which is believed to be America’s top strategic interest.

Yet such a policy might work only in the very short term. Once all of U.S. allies are assembled in its war on terrorism, the U.S. would have to pay its allies back by standing with them in defense of their national interests, and here lies the problem.

The U.S. has a dozen Middle Eastern allies, almost all of whom are locked up in competition in defense of their interests, especially after the Iraq war shook up the region in a way not seen since World War I. 

This means that when U.S. allies ask for payback for their participation in the war on terror, Washington will have to walk a very tightrope in an attempt to balance its act. America’s failure to come up with a coherent foreign policy, for itself and for its allies, has been evident in Syria, a country that has been blown up into tiny pieces since the outbreak of the anti-Assad revolution in 2011.

Washington’s strategy in Iraq has been evolving since the Iraq war in 2003. At first, the U.S. wanted Iraq as an ally and a beacon of democracy, with which it could set an example for neighboring countries, and provoke people to overthrow their dictators once they see Iraq’s prosperous democracy at work.

But America’s original blueprint for Iraq proved to be too rosy. Reality was very different, and Washington had to learn, the hard way, how to strike a balance between its friends and enemies, be they local Iraqis or regional powers.

In the middle of the bloody Iraqi civil war, many U.S. officials believed that putting Iraq back together was impossible, and that dividing it into three states -- a Shia, a Sunni, and a Kurdish state -- was the only solution. One of the biggest advocates of dividing Iraq was then-Senator Joe Biden, also chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Ironically, when he decided to run for president, 

Barack Obama recruited Biden as his running mate especially for the purpose of supervising foreign policy, given Biden’s long experience on the committee. When the duo of Obama and Biden were elected president and vice president, Obama put Biden in charge of Iraq. The VP’s National Security Advisor Anthony Blinken thus became the highest U.S. official handling American policy in Iraq.

Despite Biden’s support for dividing Iraq, Obama’s vision prevailed: Replacing America’s traditional allies with Iran, and restoring the pre-1979 American alliance with Iran became a top priority, even if that meant sacrificing Washington’s success in stabilizing Iraq by 2010 and handing it over to Iran.

Obama’s Iraq policy effectively meant making nice with Tehran, and hence undermining any Kurdish ambition for independence in northern Iraq. Even when Daesh took over Mosul in 2014 and started pushing toward Kirkuk and Baghdad, the U.S. abandoned its plans of arming the Iraqi Kurdish militia, under pressure from Baghdad, and ultimately from Iran. Germany repeatedly tried to ship arms to the Iraqi Kurds, but Obama thwarted this effort. 

Obama eventually emerged as the enemy of the Kurds. Another Obama enemy was Israel. Hence, the Israelis and Iraqi Kurds believed that the end of Obama’s presidency, and the election of Trump, would be the ideal time for both of them: Iraqi Kurds could declare independence and Israel could expand its settlements in the West Bank, while at the same time seeking peace with Arab Gulf countries.

Trump is undisputedly the closest American friend of Israel in the history of the U.S. presidency. Trump became the only president to visit the Western Wall in Jerusalem during his presidency. 

Trump’s interest in Israel has nothing to do with his view of Middle Eastern politics and everything to do with his perception that befriending Israel might secure the Jewish-American vote and financial support for his 2020 reelection.

Despite the closeness between Trump and Israel, Washington still had to take the interests of its other Middle Eastern allies into consideration. Of the U.S. allies, Turkey, Iraq and Qatar stood against Kurdish independence in Iraq. Of its enemies, Russia, Iran and Syria also opposed Kurdish independence. Of all the friends and enemies of the U.S., only Israel and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) supported an independent Iraqi Kurdistan, with Saudi Arabia only nominally opposing Kurdish independence, not minding it behind closed doors.

In light of this complicated strategic alignment, and with all the U.S. allies -- except for two -- pushing against Kurdish independence, and with Trump’s favorite ally, Israel, rooting for Kurdish independence, the U.S. position toward the Kurds looked contradictory and confused, just like Trump’s foreign policy in general.

Trump and Israel aside, when the U.S. establishment weighs an independent Kurdistan against the position of its allies, it finds that no matter how important the Kurds are to Washington, their importance cannot outweigh the strategic importance of America’s relations with Turkey, its NATO ally, and Iraq, the country where the U.S. has poured in trillions of dollars and lost thousands of lives.

Iraqi Kurds seem to have overestimated their strategic importance in American eyes, an error commonly made by local Middle Eastern powers. Perhaps the Kurds thought that Israel and the UAE could secure them American approval.

In their collective memory, the Kurds tell the story of how Mullah Mustafa Barzani, the father of Masoud, was let down by both the U.S. and the Soviet Union, as Iran thwarted Kurdish independence. The great powers might have loved the Kurds and their leader, but love was not enough to outweigh the weight of the other regional powers.

Perhaps the next time Iraqi Kurds try to become independent, they should count more on securing the support of at least one of their territorial neighbors, rather than bet on superpowers and regional powers that do not share borders with them.

The game of nations is a complicated one, and the Kurds seem unaware that they still need more cards that they can play if they ever seek independence, cards that they did not seem to have by the time they held their first independence referendum. The White House might send its love to Iraqi Kurds, but love is never enough to create states.

OPINION - Does the US really care about the Kurds?

Kurdistan: Defying Baghdad, Iraqi Kurds vote in independence referendum

Voters in areas of Iraq controlled by Kurdish forces turned out in high numbers to take part in a landmark independence referendum on Monday, defying pressure from Baghdad as well as threats from neighbours Turkey and Iran.

The vote in the autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq and some disputed areas is non-binding and will not lead automatically to independence, but is seen by the Kurds as a major step towards a long-cherished dream of statehood.

Read more: Defying Baghdad, Iraqi Kurds vote in independence referendum - France 24

Middle East: Kurdistan: "Explained": Kurdistan’s controversial independence referendum

Kurdistan, an autonomous region in northern Iraq, will hold a referendum on Monday, September 25, calling for full independence from Baghdad.

Experts say the electorate is likely to give the thumbs up to independence and, with lots of neighbouring countries opposing it, this could lead to more instability in a region already plagued by volatility.

Kurds, who have never obtained a permanent nation state, come from a mountainous region straddling the borders of Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran.

They were given hope around the time of the Treaty of Sevres in 1920 when provision was made for a Kurdish state in the aftermath of World War One. But it was never implemented and Kurds have been waiting ever since. 

Read more: Explained: Kurdistan’s controversial independence referendum | Euronews

Middle East: US-trained Iraqi army unit 'linked to Mosul war crimes'

A US-trained Iraqi army division allegedly executed dozens of men in the final phase of the battle against ISIL fighters in Mosul's Old City, Human Rights Watch has claimed.

The rights group on Thursday urged the US government to suspend all support for the 16th Division of the Iraqi army pending an investigation into what it called war crimes, evidence of which was seen by two international observers whom the group did not name.

Videos have emerged of Iraqi forces beating unarmed men. Footage also showed one man being pushed off a cliff to his death.

"Given the widespread abuses by Iraqi forces and the government’s abysmal record on accountability, the US should take a hard look at its involvement with Iraqi forces," said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch.

Read more: US-trained Iraqi army unit 'linked to Mosul war crimes' | Iraq News | Al Jazeera