Girl who fled Iraq 'never imagined' getting nine GCSEs BBC News Zainab Fhadal arrived in Stoke-on-Trent three years ago only speaking a little English, but she has now gained nine GCSEs. The 16-year-old fled the Iraqi capital Baghdad in June 2014 after her family's home was destroyed. She said she'd spent her ... |
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Girl who fled Iraq 'never imagined' getting nine GCSEs - BBC News
Following up on the breezy summer baseball movie Everybody Wants Some!!, director Richard Linklater is returning with a much heavier topic. A sequel to Hal Ashby's 1973 comedy-drama The Last Detail, Linklater's Last Flag Flying reunites veterans Sal Nealon (Bryan Cranston) and Reverend Richard Mueller (Laurence Fishburne) with Larry "Doc" Shepherd (Steve Carell) on a mission to bring home Shepherd's son, who was killed in the Iraq War.
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In very Little Miss Sunshine-style, they end up transporting the casket on their own on a trip up the East Coast to his home in New Hampshire. The trailer for Last Flag Flying mirrors the tone and some of the settings of the original, with the trio traveling on trains and through New York City to wrestle with the tragic results of war.
The film is due out on November 3 through Amazon Studios.
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Richard Linklater's New Iraq War Movie Will Make You Laugh and Cry - Esquire.com
Iraq sets conditions to exempt Jordanian products from fee hikes Jordan Times Jordan has requested Iraq to exempt Jordan from the 30 per cent customs duties imposed on imports from all countries during the meeting of Jordanian-Iraqi joint committee, as the two neighbours are bracing for a new era after the expected reopening of ... |
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Iraq sets conditions to exempt Jordanian products from fee hikes - Jordan Times
Some of the best news to come from the Middle East in a long time is the recent and long-overdue improvement in relations between Iraq and Saudi Arabia. It started in February, when Saudi foreign minister Adel al-Jubeir visited Baghdadthe first such visit since 1990and continued with a number of subsequent contacts, including a meeting between Iraqi Interior Minister Qasim al-Araji and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) on July 19. Most striking of all was when Iraqs Shiite firebrand cleric, Muqtada al-Sadr, traveled to Riyadh for high level talks on improving bilateral ties with the Saudis on July 31.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman meets with Iraqi Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia July 30, 2017. Reuters
As an Iraqi leader, Sadr has typically taken a hard nationalistand sometimes even Shiite chauvinistline. And although his relationship with Tehran is complicated owing to his independent power base and occasional appeal to a sense of Iraqi patriotism, he has been a critical Iranian ally for most of the post-Saddam Hussein era. His militia, Saraya al-Salam, continues to receive extensive support from Irans Revolutionary Guard. For all those reasons, his meeting with the Saudis, Irans traditional Arab Sunni nemesis, was a surprise, to say the least.
Although still at an early stage, these meetings have raised the possibility of Saudi willingness to support war-ravaged Iraq, ease commerce and communications between the two countries, and re-open the massive pipelines that run through the Kingdom from Iraq to the Red Seabuilt during the Iran-Iraq War but closed after Saddams 1990 invasion of Kuwait. They also raise the prospect of meaningful Sunni political participation in post-ISIS Iraq.
From the perspective of the United States (and Iraq), this can only be good news. Washington has been trying in vain since 2003 to convince the Saudis and other Gulf states that they have a vital role to play in Iraqs stability and geopolitical realignment, and that dissing the Iraqis would simply drive the countrys Shiites into the arms of the Iranians and its Sunnis into the arms of terrorist groups like al Qaeda and the Islamic State (or ISIS).
For the past 14 years, the Kingdom has kept its distance, believing that Iraq was already lost to the Iraniansand that if it werent, it was the United States job to fix the problems it created with its invasion. But MBS has been willing to reassess old policies and compete in areas where the Kingdom has previously ceded the field. Some have criticized the new approach as being occasionally too muscular, particularly in the case of Yemen. Yet this opening to Shiite leaders in Iraq suggests that the Saudis are also capable of playing a subtler political game and reaching across the sectarian divide when required.
Iraq could be a major beneficiary of such a shift, and that would be enormously helpful to U.S. efforts to stabilize the country in the wake of ISIS imminent defeat. The Saudis can play an important role in preventing their northern neighbor from sliding back into civil war for a third time. Their influence with Iraqs Sunni leaders and the tribes from the otherwise restive Anbar Province could help facilitate a political settlement that results in a more representative government in Baghdad.
Saudi Arabias opening to the Iraqis is also significant, not only for bilateral relations, but for reintegrating Iraq into its broader Arab environment. Following Sadrs landmark meeting with the Saudi crown prince, he was invited to the United Arab Emirates, where State Minister for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash announced a new era of engagement between Iraq and Arab Gulf countries. Reading the diplomatic tea leaves, four Arab foreign ministers have visited Baghdad this month.
The psychological and political dimensions of this are of equal importance. Although many Iraqi Shiites have some degree of trust that Iran will support them when no one else will, most dont like the overbearing nature of Iranian influence and would like to see it diminished. In the past, however, whenever a moderate Shiite leader tried to forge a path apart from Iran, he found it impossible to replace Tehrans largesse and protection. Neither the United States nor the deeply suspicious Sunni Arab states would help, forcing the moderate leader to turn back to Iran.
Saudi Arabias more forward leaning posture could give Iraqi Sunnis confidence to bargain with the Shiites in Baghdad. Knowing that they have a powerful neighbors support, they could be more willing to compromise. It should also make them more confident that Shiite hardliners wont be able to ignore their legitimate demands in areas such as political representation and economic benefits. It could also help them meet the needs of their community after the ravages inflicted by ISIS.
Ultimately, Iraqis dont want to become Saudi dependents eitherand they are terrified that Iraq could become the designated battlefield for the next Saudi-Iranian proxy warbut the country would love to be able to rely on another powerful regional state to restore balance to its foreign policy. Improved relations with Saudi Arabia before Iraqs 2018 parliamentary elections could make it easier for Iraqis to support more moderate candidates who could help bridge the sectarian divide, rather than the radicals who have torn the country apart.
The hard part for the United States will be to resist the temptation to assume that a bigger Saudi role in Iraq will allow for a smaller U.S. role. But as important as a better relationship with Saudi Arabia would be for Iraq, Riyadh still cannot replace Washington. Indeed, Saudi support should be seen as enabling the United States to do the things that only it can do: helping the Iraqis reach a new national reconciliation and power-sharing agreement among Sunnis and Shiites, assisting in finding a permanent solution for the status of Iraqi Kurdistan, and diluting Irans excessive influence in a strategically important Arab state.
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How Saudi Arabia is stepping up in Iraq - American Enterprise Institute
"ISIS is on the run and they have been shown to be unable to stand up to our team, have not retaken one inch of ground," he told reporters during a briefing in Bagdhad.
"A year ago the liberation of Mosul was just some ideas and lines in paper, the liberation of Raqqa was not even that," said Lt. Gen. Stephen Townsend, commander of the Combined Joint Task Force in Iraq.
"This week saw the start of Tal Afar after the hard-won victory in Mosul. We've seen our Iraqi partners quickly refit and transition their force into a new defensive in Tal Afar. In Syria we're in our third month to defeat ISIS. Daesh's defeat is inevitable. They are surrounded and cut off but their cruelty continues to shine through as they hide among women and children," he said.
In response to a question regarding civil casualties in the military campaign against ISIS, Mattis said there was "no military in the world's history that has paid more attention to limiting civilian casualties. Precision gave us options that we've never had before."
Two Syrian monitoring groups claimed Tuesday that at least 37 civilians were killed as a result of airstrikes by the US-led coalition in Raqqa Monday night.
Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently, a network of local activists, said coalition airstrikes killed 37 civilians in the neighborhood of al-Sakhani.
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights put the number at 42, saying the airstrikes hit the al-Sakhani and Badu neighborhoods.
Syrian state media said Tuesday the coalition airstrikes killed 78 civilians in Raqqa in the previous 24 hours.
"The Coalition takes all allegations of civilian casualties seriously and assesses all credible allegations of possible civilian casualties. However, the recent allegations by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights lack specificity and detail making it very difficult to properly assess," the public affairs office of the Coalition Joint Task Force - Operation Inherent Resolve said in reply to CNN questions.
"An enemy that hides behind women and children are showing who are the people violating every standard of decency and fills us with conviction [for] what we have to do about this enemy," said Mattis.
"I've seen people fleeing to ISF (Iraqi security forces) and feeling safe when they get to them. That alone is more telling than anything there, you see people risking their lives getting from one side to another. We are the good guys and the innocent people in the battlefield know the difference."
After briefing journalists, Mattis and Townsend left for the Kurdish-controlled Iraqi city of Erbil, where they were to meet with the President of the Iraqi Kurdistan region, Masoud Barzani.
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Mattis: ISIS is on the run - CNN