Politics in a Parallel Universe: Iraq’s Leadership Crisis and the Iran War
By Harith Hasan
The Iraqi government and the leaders of the country’s ruling political factions have every reason for alarm. The US–Israeli war on Iran—and its profound consequences for Iraq’s security, political stability, and economy—has produced a national crisis.
Yet in Baghdad, political debate is still fixated on who will occupy which positions, what authority and resources they will control, and how to manage factional and personal rivalries through shifting, short-term bargains. Iraq’s political factions seem to be living in a parallel universe.
Their discussions do not seriously engage with how Iraq can navigate the current crisis with minimal losses.
Most important, Iraq’s ruling political elite—long accustomed to calibrating its choices to maintain a degree of balance between Iranian and US interests—did not adequately prepare itself for a wartime scenario in which even minimal common ground between Washington and Tehran became difficult to sustain.
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