The Donald Trump administration on Thursday announced plans for 10 reconstruction projects in Christian and Yazidi communities in Iraq as part of an effort to directly fund minority areas decimated by the Islamic State. Vice President Mike Pence first redirected the funds last year amid accusations that the UN Development Program was not adequately stabilizing minority areas in the Nineveh Plains. Under the new directive, $118 million in stabilization funding for Iraq will go to minority communities, more than a third of the total US stabilization aid in Iraq. Pence on Thursday also announced an additional $17 million to clear land mines in Iraq’s Nineveh province.
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Kenneth Pollack | AEIdeas
The national elections were anything but the triumph of democracy that has been depicted by various journalists, officials, and experts. In reality, the elections were a disaster. There was massive fraud, made more salient by low voter turnout. Consequently, the results of the election have little legitimacy in the eyes of most Iraqis.