(Renad Mansour – Chatham House) On 27 January, US President Donald Trump surprised many with a blunt warning on social media: if Iraq reinstated the veteran politician Nouri al-Maliki as prime minister, the US would withdraw its support. The public threat exposed a reality of foreign influence in Iraq that the country’s leaders insist they have left behind. Despite their claims of renewed sovereignty, marked by the end of the US troop presence and the UN mission last year, Iraq remains a battleground for US–Iran rivalry. When that contest intensifies, Iraq’s fragility is quickly exposed. This time, even as Tehran grappled with mounting domestic and regional pressures, it showed little sign of strategic fatigue, reacting swiftly to promote its preferred candidate in Baghdad. Meanwhile Washington, which had appeared to be distracted on Iraq under a president prone to spectacle over strategy, has since scrambled to oppose al-Maliki and Iran’s influence.
What Nouri al-Maliki’s prime minister bid tells us about Iraq
Related articles
