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By Osama Al-Sharif*

Of all the Iraqi religious scholars turned politicians, Shiite cleric Muqtada Al-Sadr is the most controversial, bold and charismatic. He comes from a family that has stood up to oppressive regimes on nationalistic grounds. At 47, he is still young and relatively inexperienced. Once an ally of Iran, he is now distancing himself from Tehran, but is also careful to underline his hostility to the US presence in the war-torn country.

At one point he led an armed militia, the Mahdi Army, to fight the Americans, only to break it up and form a political coalition of like-minded figures that is proud of its Shiite background, but not at the expense of the Iraqi national or Arab identity. Between the 2003 US invasion, which resulted in the dismantling of Baath Party rule, and the chaotic formation of an ethnosectarian political setup, Al-Sadr never fully embraced the new system, even when the Shiite politicians were firmly in control of the country.

Of all the major Shiite blocs and political parties, his was the only one brave enough to denounce the political quota system and the rampant corruption beleaguering the new Iraq. And he is among the few political figures to have called for the dissolution of the armed pro-Iran militias that were formed to stand up to Daesh, the radical Sunni revisionist movement that at one point was only a few kilometers from Baghdad.

The last decade, with its myriad seismic political and economic events, has ripened Al-Sadrs political vision. He remains a charismatic figure, especially among Iraqs disenfranchised Shiites, who failed to benefit from the rise of powerful leaders such as Nouri Al-Maliki and Haider Abadi.

This is perhaps why Al-Sadrs Sairoon alliance emerged as the clear winner in Octobers general election at the expense of pro-Iran blocs such as Hadi Al-Amiris Fatah coalition a political front for the pro-Iran militias. The phenomenal rejection by voters included Al-Maliki, Abadi, Ammar Al-Hakim and Ayad Allawi.

They all rejected the outcome of the elections, claiming nationwide fraud, and Al-Amiri and his ally Qais Al-Khazali threatened to use force. Their firebrand rhetoric may have prompted last months failed assassination attempt on Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi.

The Shiite powers formed a Coordination Framework that called for a manual recount of the ballots. And when the election committee confirmed the results after such a count, they invited Al-Sadr to a meeting. None wanted to dispose of the quota system that favored them. But Al-Sadr had another objective in mind: He reiterated that he wanted to form a national majority government that will be neither eastern nor western; i.e., that will end the convenient status quo that has brought the country to its knees. He will either form such a majority government with the help of the Sunni Arabs, the Kurds and the independents who were behind the 2019 mass protests, or else sit in opposition.

He would also welcome others to join, but only on his own terms. Even then, his demand that the pro-Iran militias be dissolved stands, while he continues to promise to expose those behind the assassination attempt on Al-Kadhimi.When push comes to shove, Al-Sadr and his new-found allies including the Arab Sunnis (Mohammed Al-Halbousis Taqaddum), the Kurds (Barzani branch) and the independents do have the upper hand. His rivals, under the umbrella of the Coordination Framework, may lose the glue that keeps them together when they realize that the election results will not be overturned.

Al-Sadr is proving to be a maverick by opposing the Americans and insisting on doing away with pro-Iran militias. Timing is very important and it may be on his side. The Americans are supposed to be leaving by the end of the year as they review their military presence in the Middle East. The threat of the pro-Iran militias subjugating the political system has subsided since the assassination of Qassem Soleimani last year. It is now clear that Irans grip over Iraq is waning and for many reasons. The Iraqi people are fed up with Iranian meddling, the vast corruption of the ruling political class and the failure to deal with existential economic, political and environmental challenges.

Al-Sadr has praised Al-Kadhimis efforts to keep Iraq neutral in the US-Iran showdown. He may decide to let him stay as prime minister, even if this is anathema to his Shiite rivals. This would be a major step forward for Iraq, which is trying to revive its national identity and rejoin the Arab fold. If Al-Sadr succeeds in toppling the ethnosectarian system, it will be a historic milestone in the countrys recovery. His failure would be disastrous on all fronts, so his gambit must succeed.

Originally posted here:
Al-Sadr's Gambit Must Succeed If Iraq Is To Have Bright Future OpEd - Eurasia Review

Iraq's water ministry has completed procedures to sue Iran at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) over Tehran's water policy, which it is argued has reduced the flow of water from the Tigris and Euphrates rivers creating shortages for Iraq.

"The Ministry of Water Resources has submitted a letter to the foreign ministry and the cabinet, and completed all technical and legal procedures for the lawsuit," Iraqi Minister of Water Resources Mahdi Rashid Al-Hamdani told Al-Hurra TV.

"The decision to take matters further is now up to the foreign ministry and the Iraqi government," he added.

Although the two rivers make up the vast majority of Iraq's surface water supply, they both originate outside the country and are vulnerable to the upstream dam projects in Syria, Turkey and Iran. Rising temperatures have also led to an increase in evaporation and research has shown that the country is now about 40 per cent desert.

READ: Bleak future awaits MENA if climate change effects not tackled

Baghdad has accused Tehran of cutting off water that feeds into the rivers that flow into the Tigris and increasing its dam construction which has threatened Iraq's agricultural sector and water security. Over the past 30 years, Iran has built around 600 dams.

Last week, the water ministry warned that Iraq's Tigris and Euphrates could dry up by 2040 due to falling water levels and climate change.

However, Iran is facing its own water shortages, with the some 97 per cent of the country experiencing some level of drought, according to the country's Meteorological Organisation. Late last month, the protests erupted in the central city of Isfahan over the dried up riverbed of the Zyandeh Rud River with calls for the government to revive the river. Farmers, who are the worst affected by the mismanagement, accuse the government of redirecting the water to other cities and industrial complexes.

READ: Syria reservoir dries up, increasing concerns over climate change in region

See the article here:
Iraq moves to sue Iran over water access - Middle East Monitor

US hedge fund tycoon Michael Steinhardt has surrendered $70 million of stolen antiquities, several of which came from the Middle East, and accepted a lifetime ban on acquiring more historic artefacts, New York prosecutors have said.

Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance said Mr Steinhardt, a billionaire financier and philanthropist, had bought antiquities stolen from Lebanon, Iraq, Turkey and other countries, many of which passed through the hands of antique traffickers.

They included a multi-million-dollar bulls head statue stolen from Lebanon during its civil war, a gold bowl looted from Iraq during the ISIS expansion, and a gold coffin stolen from Egypt in the aftermath of the 2011 revolution. Three stone death masks, approximately 9,000 years old, originated in the Judean foothills in Israel.

Three death masks, circa 6,000 to 7,000BC, were crafted from stone and originated in the foothills of the Judean mountains, most likely in the Shephelah in Israel. Photo: Manhattan District Attorneys Office

"For decades, Michael Steinhardt displayed a rapacious appetite for plundered artefacts without concern for the legality of his actions, Mr Vance said in a statement on Monday.

He cared little about the legitimacy of the pieces he bought and sold, or the grievous cultural damage he wrought across the globe," added the prosecutor.

Mr Steinhardt denied criminal wrongdoing in resolving the matter, which ended a grand jury investigation into him.

Still, the deal involves a lifetime ban from acquiring antiques on the legal art market.

Mr Steinhardts lawyers said in a statement he was pleased that the investigation was over, and items wrongfully taken by others will be returned to their native countries.

They also said Mr Steinhardt may seek compensation from dealers who misled him.

Mr Steinhardt, 81, built his wealth running the hedge fund Steinhardt Partners, which he closed in 1995 to focus on Jewish charity work.

He is worth $1.2 billion, according to Forbes magazine, and is a big donor to such institutions as New York University and the Metropolitan Museum, which named a gallery after him.

Mr Vance said the antiquities will be returned to their rightful owners in Bulgaria, Egypt, Greece, Iraq, Israel, Italy, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Syria and Turkey. Law enforcement in these countries assisted in the probe.

According to a 142-page case file, 138 of the antiquities came from Greece, Israel or Italy, with Mr Steinhardt once acknowledging that a majority of items he bought from one dealer "did not have provenance".

Among the antiquities was a 4th century BC wrought Grecian stags head worth $3.5 million that Steinhardt loaned in 1993 to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The stags head had been Found in Western Turkey, according to undated handwritten notes in Mr Steinhardt's records.

Information from a seller identifying the find spot of an unprovenanced antiquity is often an indication that it has been looted, the case file said.

Mr Vance formed an antiquities trafficking unit in December 2017. He leaves office after 12 years at the end of the month.

A 2008 file photo of Michael Steinhardt. Reuters

Updated: December 7th 2021, 6:23 PM

Original post:
Chastised US tycoon returns $70m of looted antiquities from Iraq, Lebanon and beyond - The National

Situation Overview

In 2021, the number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) returning to their area of origin (AoO) or being re-displaced increased, coupled with persisting challenges in relation to social cohesion, lack of services, infrastructure and - in some cases - security in AoOs. Increased returns were driven in part by the ongoing closure and consolidation of IDP camps. As of July 2021, 16 formal camps and informal sites have been closed or reclassified as informal sites since camp closures started in mid-October 2020. For the camps that remain open across Iraq there is an ongoing planning procedure to determine their future. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) Displacement Tracking Matrix (DTM)s Returnee Master List recorded that over 5,460 households returned to non-camp locations across the country between January and July 2021.

There were no additional camp closures between January and July 2021, however IDPs continued returning or secondarily displacing. In light of these dynamics, the need to better understand the sustainability of returns, conditions for the (re)integration of IDPs and returnees, and the impact of their presence on access to services and social cohesion has been identified in the context of humanitarian and development planning.

Read the original:
Rapid Assessment on Returns and Durable Solutions, Al-Qahtaniya Sub-district - Al-Baaj District - Ninewa Governorate, Iraq, August 2021 - Iraq -...

Iraq's water resources minister, Mahdi Rashid Al-Hamdani, was overflowing with optimism when he returned from a visit to Turkey in October. The Turks promised to increase the water quota that will flow into the Euphrates River to Iraq was his good news.

For a long time Iraq has been suffering a water deficit estimated at around 11 billion cubic meters a year, something only expected to worsen as the countrys population grows. Farmers are reporting that large swaths of farmland are drying up because of the severe drought and climate change. Temperatures have topped 50 degrees Celsius (122 Fahrenheit) in the summer, fruit has shriveled, seeds aren't sprouting and even water for drinking and bathing is lacking.

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Research by the Iraqi government shows that the country is now about 40 percent desert, and the salinity of much of the land is too high for agriculture. Iraq receives most of its water from two rivers, the Euphrates and Tigris, whose sources are in Turkey. The rest it buys from Iran.

Iraq and Turkey have signed a number of agreements on supplying water; the last was in 2009 but it was never implemented in full. Turkey says it's meeting the terms of the agreement and blames Iraq for mismanaging its water system.

At least the second half of this claim has something to stand on. For decades, irrigation and household plumbing were neglected in Iraq, and people stole water from the public pipes or dug wells in their yards. The occupation of parts of Iraq by the Islamic State also added to the water woes, and even after the group was defeated, most of the state budget went for other projects and especially into the hands of contractors who exploited the aid to rebuild Iraq to line their pockets.

Moving to the cities

Al-Hamdani may have been received warmly in Turkey, and the two sides even agreed to establish a joint research institute to study water issues. But one number was missing from the meeting: How much water would Iraq receive from Turkey?

This question still doesnt have an answer because Turkey continues to develop its Great Anatolia Project, the construction of 22 dams and 19 hydroelectric power plants that will greatly reduce the amount of water flowing into the Tigris and Euphrates to Iraq and Syria.

Iraq's water shortage has already had a concrete effect on the countrys demographics. Thousands of Iraqis have abandoned their villages and land to move to the outskirts of the big cities, Baghdad, Mosul and Basra. But no employment opportunities await in these places, which are having a hard time providing the new residents with public services.

The result is that many people are trying to move to the Kurdish autonomous region or even leave the country and join the millions of climate migrants around the world.

While friendly negotiations are underway with Turkey, which provides Iraq with about 25 billion cubic meters of water a year via the Euphrates, the supply from Iran is a completely different story. In theory, the rivers and streams with sources in Iran could provide some 11 billion cubic meters a year. But a long series of dams have diverted the flow, and in July a planned halt to the opening of the dams in Iraq's favor meant that Iraq no longer received water from Iran.

This wasn't an evil decision designed to take revenge on Iraqis. Iran is simply suffering a heavy drought; this year Iran has received about half its usual rainfall. Over 8,000 Iranian villages and towns receive their water from tankers, and the distress has led to protests and violent clashes, especially in the Khuzestan Province in the southwest.

Iraq has also claimed that Iran isn't following international law on the division of water between countries fed by the same sources; it has even announced that it plans to sue Iran in international court. But dont hold your breath; Iraq still doesn't have a new government and its dependence on its eastern neighbor will prevent it from dragging Iran into a lawsuit.

The electricity factor

Still, Tehran realizes that Iraqis, especially in the south, are nurturing anti-Iranian sentiments stemming from the water shortage.

The water crisis doesn't recognize international borders, and Syria too another Turkish water customer is drying up. But unlike Iraq, Syria's water shortage also has political causes. In the Kurdish regions in the north, the people receive water from a pumping station run by electricity generated by plants controlled by Syrian Kurdish forces.

Turkey says the Kurds are cutting off power to the pumping station, while the Kurds accuse Turkey of halting the pumping to make life harder for the locals.

Either way, the result is the same, tens of thousands of people in northern Syria the country's bread basket don't have tap water, and as in Iraq, their fields and orchards have dried up. For example, some 400,000 people live in the city of Raqqa, where the flow has fallen from 600 cubic meters a second in rainy years to under 200.

The lakes behind the dams now look completely dried up, and according to the group Save the Children, water has been supplied on only 142 days since January, and even then supply has been about half the normal amount.

Water experts also say the drought isn't the only reason for Syria's water shortage. Faulty maintenance, increased use of water by power plants, water theft and a lack of strategic planning for the lakes have all stoked the water crisis.

Iraq and Syria are now striving for an agreement with Turkey to guarantee a fair division of the water. Understandings were reached in 1992 between Syria and Iraq and between the two countries and Turkey under which Turkey would send 500 cubic meters a second; Syria would receive 42 percent of it, Iraq 58 percent.

But no formal agreement was signed because of disagreements over ownership of the Euphrates River; there's also the question of whether to view the Tigris and Euphrates as a single water system or two.

Turkey argues that the Euphrates is a Turkish river, that it's not bound by international law, and that its channeling of water into Syria and Iraq is a goodwill gesture. It says that over the years it has let a lot more water flow than the agreed-on amounts.

It's unlikely that Turkey will change tack despite the water crisis. At most, it will agree to temporarily increase the flow without tying its hands in the future. All Syrian and Lebanese farmers can do for now is pray for rain.

Here is the original post:
Iraq's water crisis is getting dire and its neighbors aren't helping - Haaretz