Iraq’s government has taken “meaningful steps” toward bringing minority Sunnis and Kurds into the military and government but hasn’t done enough to stop the abuse of citizens by Shiite-dominated militias, according to a U.S. assessment. - Bloomberg
After a day of sleeping, praying and even swimming in the Green Zone, the government citadel historically off limits to ordinary Iraqis, protesters began leaving Sunday evening on orders from the man who had sent them: Moktada al-Sadr, the influential Shiite cleric. – New York Times The Islamic State said Saturday that it used a truck bomb packed with three tons of explosives to target Shiite pilgrims as they walked to a shrine in Baghdad, in an attack that killed at least 23 people. – Washington Post Iraq’s government has taken “meaningful steps” toward bringing minority Sunnis and Kurds into the military and government but hasn’t done enough to stop the abuse of citizens by Shiite-dominated militias, according to a U.S. assessment. - Bloomberg Emma Sky writes: The sad reality is that Iraq has become ungovernable, more a state of militias than a state of institutions. As long as that state of affairs continues, even a weakened Islamic State, which has been losing territory and support, will find a home in Iraq, drawing on Sunni fears of corruption and incompetence by the Shia-dominated government. - Politico Mosul next. Isn’t Mosul always next? As Iraqi forces slowly gather steam to push on the city, “virtually every major armed group in Iraq and their foreign patrons, including local Sunni Arabs backed by Turkey, Shiite militias supported by Iran, and American-equipped Kurdish forces are jockeying for a piece of the action,” in a smart new piece. “Despite a campaign more than a year in the making,” they note, “Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has yet to forge a coherent political plan that can bridge the divide between the rival groups, all but certainly pushing back a military operation yet again, U.S. officials and experts said.” The push to capture Mosul from the Islamic State inches forward ever so slightly as Iraqi forces took the village of Mahana, in Ninevah province. The capture marks the first forward movement for Iraqi security forces since an offensive three weeks ago stalledamid poor weather, slow movement and desertions. This week's advance was supported by U.S. airstrikes and puts Iraqi forces in range of Qayyara, the capture of which could help cut the Islamic State in Mosul's lines of communication to areas it controls surrounding the city. David Ignatius writes: The battle for Mosul, about 35 miles north, must begin with the seizure of such Islamic State positions along the Tigris River. But the Iraqi army isn’t ready yet to take a small, well-fortified village such as Al-Nasr. So it’s hard to imagine that Mosul itself could be cleared by the end of the year, as the Obama administration has hoped. – Washington Post
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“Obama is Right: The Gulf Arabs Ride Free on Terrorism” (David Andrew Weinberg, The National Interest)
“Indeed, the Gulf region stands at the intersection of two powerful and pivotal trends: fundamentalist ideological currents and enormous wealth from oil and natural gas. That confluence allegedly makes it a top source -- some have argued the top source -- of private donations to certain menacing terrorist organizations such as Al Qaeda, the Taliban, Lashkar-e-Taiba and Hamas. Official sources told me earlier this year that Kuwait has yet to convict -- or even indict on terror-finance charges -- a single one of the ten or so living Kuwaiti nationals and residents who are subject to terror-finance sanctions by the United States and United Nations. They also indicated that one or two of the men may still be employed at Kuwait’s flagship state university, and the local press has reported that one sanctioned Kuwaiti has also been given his mosque pulpit back by order of the state. In Qatar, there is reason to believe circumstances are more or less the same.” FPI Senior Policy Analyst Tzvi Kahn writes: Tehran has made it clear that it will do anything to exploit the terms of the nuclear deal to extract further concessions from the White House. By conceding to Iran’s machinations rather than challenging it for its ongoing violations of international laws and norms, the Obama administration tacitly encourages the regime to continue its misbehavior, ultimately threatening the nuclear deal’s viability in the long term. – Foreign Policy Initiative
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