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Canada is extending its military mission in Iraq and the Middle East for another year.

Defence Minister Anita Anand announced the 12-month extension on Thursday evening, only hours before the current mandate was set to expire.

It comes even as Canada has steadily reduced its military footprint in the region as the focus in Iraq, in particular, has shifted from defeating the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant to countering Irans growing influence.

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The Canadian Armed Forces, which first deployed troops to Iraq in October 2014 as ISIL threatened to take over the country and neighbouring Syria, previously had a high of more than 800 soldiers in the region.

The Canadian mission at different times included fighter jets, transport and surveillance aircraft, helicopters as well as military trainers and special forces troops working alongside Kurdish and Iraqi forces as they fought ISIL.

But the mission has since shrunk in size and prominence as concerns about ISIL have been replaced with fears about Irans growing influence in Iraq and the region, and as other crises and threats such as Russia, China and the COVID-19 pandemic have emerged.

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Canada in February had only about 300 Armed Forces members assigned to what is known as Operation Impact, with about 250 intelligence, logistics and command staff in Kuwait, 50 trainers in Jordan and Lebanon, and only a handful of troops in Iraq.

The Canadian Armed Forces have been working with partners and allies since 2014 to improve Iraqi security forces capabilities, Anand said in a statement.

The Canadian Armed Forces have also been providing training and capacity-building assistance to the Jordanian Armed Forces and the Lebanese Armed Forces.

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The decision to extend Canadas military mission in Iraq comes as the Armed Forces is being asked to contribute additional troops and equipment in eastern Europe in response to Russias invasion of Ukraine, and as it struggles with personnel shortfall.

It also coincides with a political deadlock in Baghdad over repeated failures to elect a new president and escalating tensions between the United States and Iran, with the latter having launched ballistic missile attacks in the region in recent weeks.

Bessma Momani, one of Canadas top Middle East experts at the University of Waterloo, said the decision to extend the mission comes at a critical time for Iraq as the country teeters toward collapse amid a proxy war between the United States and Iran.

While Canadas contribution is largely symbolic at this point, Momani said, this is not a time to pull out. It just sends all the wrong messages. Iraqs just way too fragile to pull out at the moment.

Canadas mission has largely slipped from public view, but it has seen its share of controversies over the years. Those include questions about whether Canadian troops were in combat, and concerns about the screening of Iraq troops trained by Canada.

The Liberals were also criticized for withdrawing Canadian fighter jets after taking power in 2015, while Canadas partnership with Iraqs Kurdish minority put this country into an awkward position when faced with Kurdish calls for independence from Iraq.

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One Canadian soldier was killed while serving on Operation Impact. Sgt. Andrew Doiron died after Kurdish forces mistakenly shot the Canadian special forces member. Three other Canadians were injured in the friendly fire incident.

2022 The Canadian Press

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Canada extends military mission in Iraq for another year - Global News

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ERBIL, Iraq, April 1, 2022 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Business Line announced its partnership with the technology industry giant, SAP, and has been recognized as a reputed SAP Partner in Iraq. This is a big milestone in Business Line's journey towards growth and success. This also establishes Business Line as a trusted SAP services provider in the region.

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Trazia Gabbarah, Marketing Executive, Business Line Company

This partnership is the result of Business Line's contributions to the technology landscape in the region and a guarantee of its commitment to digital transformation through excellent service provision before, during, and after the sales process.

"By joining forces with SAP, we are more than ready to turn our customers' businesses into smart enterprises that stand apart".

Trazia Gabbarah, Marketing Executive, Business Line Company

Becoming a SAP Partner is a rigorous process that ensures a potential partner's ability to deliver on SAP's vision and mission. Having met all the requirements put forth by SAP, Business Line has proven its value in Iraq.

About Business Line

Business Line is a technology firm headquartered in Erbil, Iraq. Our mission is to help create smart enterprises by leveraging technology and providing unmatched technical and business advisory services. Our services range from the implementation of SAP products like SAP Business One, SAP Business ByDesign, and SAP Analytics Cloud, to providing digital marketing services to helping businesses with RPA, cloud migration, and much more.

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Media Contact

Trazia Gabbarah, Business Line Company, 964 (783) 445 3555, sales@businesslinecompany.com

SOURCE Business Line Company

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Business Line Company Recognized as a SAP Partner in Iraq - 69News WFMZ-TV

When most of us picture a game of bingo, we imagine a silent hall while the caller can be heard, shouting out a series of numbers while players frantically blot their card with giant marker pens, with the aim of declaring "house!" and wining a prize.

It's a hugely popular activity, with bingo halls around the country welcoming thousands of players each week. Now, while Bingo Loco loosely follows this concept - silence is most certainly out of the question, with debauchery, mayhem and music an important factor in creating a party atmosphere. And it's coming to Kanteena in Lancaster on Friday, April 8.

READ MORE: Lancaster's Farm Yard Brew Co named best craft brewery in UK

It is the brainchild of co-founders Craig Reynolds and Will Meara who were taken by the rising trend of drag and gameshow bingo, with events such as Bongo's Bingo already well established in the UK. The duo, who were later joined in running the business by friend Stephen Lawless, were inspired to set up their own version by the unlikeliest of sources.

In 2016, Will and Craig were backpacking in Northern Iraq and they stumbled across a mess hall of Peshmerga soldiers who were playing bingo with Arabic numbers.

"Not having a clue what was happening we gamified the experience into a drinking game at our own table which soon expanded to tables all around us, " Will explained to LancsLive.

"Seeing how everyone could unify so easily around Bingo and how easy it was for people to engage with, it didn't take long to cook up our very own wild child bingo rave. "

"Our first show, we didn't really know what we were doing. It was five-hours long, the team were drenched in sweat and the audience couldn't get enough and so they kept coming back again and again".

Now, the founders are taking the show on the road in the UK this spring, starting in Northern Ireland on April 3, then heading to a n umber of other venues before reaching Lancaster.

Will, Stephen and Craig have also planned a tour of shows in the United Arab Emirates, have already hosted events in America and Canada and have also expanded to Australia. The entrepreneurs have a background in event and gig promotion, marketing start ups and commercial executives and as a result have a "well rounded" set of skill and experience.

Once they had settled on an idea, the Dublin-based trio got to work to build a team of performers, including DJs, dancers and event managers from a huge pool or people they had worked with over the years. We did a small trial run to 100 of our friends and the feedback was insane, "Will added, who admits they were "winging it" at the beginning.

"It was not the well oiled, high end production it is today mind you. "Initially for the first year we worked hard on making our shows popular in Dublin but it wasn't before long it spread to all around Ireland and we began popping up in cities like New York, Sydney and Vancouver."

The first-ever event was held in a basement club in Dublin and post covid-lockdowns, Will hopes they can continue to bring the chaos, music nostalgia and fun to new places, with an "insatiable appetite" for their type of entertainment.

Will added: "We specialise in getting groups together to sing, laugh, dance, play games and enjoy an interactive spectacle for the night. "Our shows in Kanteena in Lancaster, such a unique and special venue are truly a real highlight for us".

Read this article:
Soldiers in Iraq and how they inspired the launch of Lancaster's new bingo rave - Lancs Live

Benefitting from a skewed Supreme Court interpretation of the Iraqi constitution, Irans loyalists this week once again preventedthe Iraqi parliament from electing a president, thus violating a constitutional mandate that a presidential election be held within 30 days of electing a speaker, which happened in January.

With parliament stalled, Iran and its tiny minority bloc are forcing Iraqs parliamentary majority to choose between forming a national unity cabinet with Iranian loyalists or keeping parliament closed indefinitely. Whichever way it plays out, the stand-off has only deepened a political crisis that has plagued the war-scarred country for months.

In February, Iraqs Supreme Courtdealtthe countrys anti-Iran majority a stinging defeat when it offered an unconvincing explanation of how parliament should elect a president. The court in effect saved Iran from the humiliation suffered in Octobers parliamentary election, when its loyalists won only 62 out of parliaments 329 seats.

While most of the judges on the court are Shia, there is no clear evidence that they are partisans of Iran. That is because the court does not share its deliberations or detail how it reaches its decisions. It only issues a verdict with the signature of all nine judges. In this case, it seems the court was thinking that the inclusion of more blocs in government would produce stronger cabinets.

The Iraqi constitution stipulates that a simple parliamentary majority of 165 MPs constitutes a quorum. For the election of a president, the constitution says that a winner should collect support from two-thirds of members, without specifying whether that means all 329 office holders, or just those present for the vote.

Shutting down parliament was Irans only hope for stopping the majority from electing a president and prime minister and forming a cabinet. Iraqs Supreme Court raised the quorum bar from one-half to two-thirds with its interpretation that two-thirds meant all 329 members. But by doing so, the court undermined the basic constitutional principle of forming a simple majority government and forced in its stead a super majority.

In past elections, no bloc or alliance reached the simple 165 majority and Irans loyalists usually won the biggest number of seats. Hence, the disagreement was usually over defining whether the biggest bloc meant the biggest party or the largest alliance. By the time a majority was obtained, a quorum was achieved and everything else fell in place

But Iraqs 2021 election handed anti-Iran Shia cleric Moqtada Al-Sadr the biggest bloc, with 73 MPs. Sunnis won two blocs that were merged to form a 51-seat alliance. The Kurdistan Democratic Party won 31 seats. These three blocs then formed a 155-seat coalition and called it Rescue the Homeland (RH). Of the 43 independents elected, RH snatched enough MPs to become a simple majority coalition of 165 seats. The parties Etimad and New Generation also joined, raising RHs seat count to 202. And yet, while a 202-seat majority is big, it falls short of the super majority now required to elect a president and form a cabinet.

Before the courts ruling, the RH majority re-elected, on January 9, Sunni Muhammad Al-Halbousi for a second term as speaker.The Iraqi constitution stipulates that the election of a president should have followed within 30 days. But Irans loyalists took up the issue with the Supreme Court, disputing Halbousis election. Trying to split hairs, the court affirmed Halbousis win but fixed quorum for the presidential election at 220.

While the pro-Iran bloc won only 62 seats, it managed to win over many legislators by twisting their arms, at times threatening violence. But on Wednesday, just as it did during the previous two attempts, the quorum collapsed, leaving RH with two bad options: either let Iranian loyalists join a new cabinet or continue to linger under an interim one. Sadr did not his mince words when he tweeted his preference: I will not reach a consensus with you. A stalemate is better than dividing state spoils.

Iran and its loyalists do not care much about government. Iraq, Lebanon, and Yemen are failed states and Tehran has never showed willingness to lift a finger to bring about settlements. What Iran does, however, is make sure that no cabinets are formed without its loyalists, which gives it the power to kill decrees or executive orders that might lead to the disarmament of its militias.

While Iran usually cloaks its quest for veto power behind insisting on the Shia share, such cover has been blown in Iraq where the biggest elected Shia bloc opposes Irans Islamist regime. In fact, all the components of Iraqs majority coalition, the Shia, the Sunni and the Kurd, represent their electorates and oppose Iran.

Iran has therefore changed its narrative from demanding the Shia share to insisting on national unity, which means giving Irans tiny minority veto power or live with a shutdown state. Before the Supreme Court handed Iran its ability to bring the state to a halt, Tehrans loyalists often threatened civil war if a cabinet was formed without them.

And thus, Iraq finds itself at a political standstill. Should Tehrans loyalists win a majority, they would form a cabinet while leaving the minority in their rearview mirror. For Iran, politics in Iraq comes down to this: find a way to win elections or employ strategies to ensure its loyalists never lose.

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Even when they fail to win, Iran's Iraqi loyalists refuse to lose | Hussain Abdul-Hussain | AW - The Arab Weekly

Thomas Juneau is an associate professor in international affairs at the University of Ottawa. Bessma Momani is professor of political science at the University of Waterloo. They are the co-editors of the forthcoming book Middle Power in the Middle East: Canadas Foreign and Defence Policies in a Changing Region.

As the war in Ukraine reminds us, the international political system continues to be volatile and Canada must play an active role, where it can, to support our broader alliances. One arena of conflict that continues to simmer is Iraq. Our mission there, Operation Impact, expires at the end of March. We ought to renew it, but we must do this with our eyes open to new risks and the evolution of our mission.

To defeat the Islamic State, the Canadian Armed Forces have been in the region to assist in training the Iraqi security forces and to support NATOs mission in Iraq. At the peak of the mission, 850 CAF members were present in the region to improve local security forces capabilities to fight IS, gather intelligence, detect and dismantle improvised explosive devices repeatedly used to target innocent civilians, clear deadly mines in civilian areas and improve the professionalization of the Iraqi National Army.

The mission initially was, and still is, clearly in Canadas national interest. First and foremost, Canadas role in Iraq is to help Iraqi citizens who continue to face daily insecurities and who have a national army that is far from being professionalized. Corruption, internal fiefdoms within the Iraqi national army and external pressure from Iranian militias to create a fifth column within the Iraqi security forces pose real threats to Iraqis.

That said, lets not kid ourselves. We are also in Iraq to be and be perceived as a good ally. The mission is important to maintain good relations with Washington. As is often the case, a key consideration shaping Canadas decision on whether to contribute to a military intervention is not only about the situation on the ground but also about alliance management. Canada also has an interest in doing its share within the NATO alliance as well as in contributing to international efforts to combat terrorism. Thankfully, civilian deaths at the hands of IS have steadily decreased since its heyday in 2014. Nevertheless, in 2020, the terrorist group claimed 87 deadly attacks, on average killing 149 Iraqis each month.

Yet the mission in Iraq has evolved. Originally, Canada joined the U.S.-led coalition to fight against IS. That remains a valid reason for Canada to continue to contribute. But now the threat to the CAF deployment in Iraq comes primarily from Iran-backed armed militias. The Canadian government has not been sufficiently transparent about this evolution and needs to clearly communicate it to the Canadian public.

Canada also has an interest in the stabilization and democratization of Iraq, a key regional power, an important oil producer and, potentially, a bulwark against expanded Iranian influence in the Middle East. Establishing a professional, national army in Iraq that is not beholden to Iranian interests is key to preventing the state from falling into the hands of militia groups and reverting to ISs territorial control. This raises uncomfortable risks. How will Canadian troops respond if they are hit by Iran-backed militias as is happening to U.S. troops on a regular basis?

That said, the war in Ukraine reminds us that Canada also has fundamental interests in Europe. If Canada is to continue and perhaps increase its commitment to various missions in Eastern Europe and beyond, then implicitly there are fewer resources for other commitments.

The Canadian Armed Forces have also increased the tempo of their deployments on the domestic front in recent years, as witnessed by their role during the pandemic in support of the vaccine rollout, especially in remote areas, and in long-term care centres. Climate change is certainly going to accelerate our need for domestic deployments. There is little reason to believe that European and domestic commitments will diminish in frequency in the coming years. In this context, it is less clear than in the past if, given its scarce resources, Canada can still afford to commit to the mission in Iraq.

Iraq is not yet stable and without the assistance of NATO and other forces, the country could see a renewed IS insurgency and fall further into the hands of Iran. Our government needs to be open with Canadians about our evolving purpose in Iraq, but its worth continuing the mission.

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Opinion: Canada is helping stabilize Iraq. We should renew our mission - The Globe and Mail