Kurdish Infighting Could Undermine a Sovereign Iraqi Government

For Washington and other supporters of a sovereign and prosperous Iraq, the October 2021 parliamentary elections were a success. Contrary to expectations, Iranian-backed Shiite Islamist parties and their militias were defeated at the ballot box. The Hashd lost not to Western-oriented candidates but to another credible local Shiite party whose leader’s hashtag, #NeitherEastnorWest, was an unambiguous call for an Iraq dominated by neither Tehran nor Washington. The election results mitigated toward the establishment of a new, majoritarian government capable of pursuing better governance and an independent Iraq. It’s cruel irony that this potential outcome, a longstanding U.S. aspiration, appears to have been undermined in part by Washington’s best friends in Iraq: the Kurds...

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