Middle-east Arab News Opinion | Asharq Al-awsat

Media ID: 55335778
Caption:

epa04359093 A handout picture released by Iraqi Prime Minister’s office shows Iraqi Prime Minister-designate Haider al-Abadi (C-R) meeting with Lebanese Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil (C-L), in Baghdad, Iraq, 18 August 2014. Bassil is visiting Baghdad for talks with senior Iraqi officials about the latest developments in the region. EPA/PRIME MINISTER OFFICE/HANDOUT HANDOUT EDITORIAL USE ONLY/NO […]

Opinion: What Iraq Needs to Do

by Wafiq Al-Samarrai | Aug 23, 2014 | Opinion

When any country is exposed to a critical and existential war such as the one raging in Iraq, and when sectarian rhetoric becomes prevalent among politicians whose self-serving approach has caused all sorts of tensions, the preservation of the structure of the state...

Media ID: 55333401
Caption:

Volunteers who have joined the Iraqi army to fight against Sunni militants from the radical Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) who have taken over Mosul and other northern provinces wave from a truck in Baghdad, on June 18, 2014. (Reuters/Ahmed Saad)

Opinion: The ISIS–Iraq Military Dance

by Wafiq Al-Samarrai | Aug 3, 2014 | Opinion

During my service in the Iraqi armed forces, the country witnessed flurries of successes and failures. Despite all this, I never felt that the fate of the country was under threat. Despite the complex circumstances that followed the fall of Mosul into the hands of the...

Media ID: 55333401
Caption:

Volunteers who have joined the Iraqi army to fight against Sunni militants from the radical Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) who have taken over Mosul and other northern provinces wave from a truck in Baghdad, on June 18, 2014. (Reuters/Ahmed Saad)

Opinion: The Storming of Baghdad

by Wafiq Al-Samarrai | Jul 11, 2014 | Opinion

They must be either mad or ignorant, those who think that what has happened in Mosul and Tikrit can be repeated in Samarra and Baghdad. They have been told from the outset that these two cities will be difficult to take over for both military and security reasons. Any...

Media ID: 55330847
Caption:

Election posters are hung along a street in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk, on April 1, 2014 ahead of Iraq’s April 30 general elections. (AFP/Marwan Ibrahim)

Opinion: Iraq is Recovering

by Wafiq Al-Samarrai | Apr 28, 2014 | Opinion

Iraq under presidents Abdul Salam and Abdul Rahman Arif—the brothers who ruled the country from 1963 to 1968—was not an oppressive police state. This was especially true of Abdul Rahman, who was moderate and honest, or as some politicians prefer to describe him,...