Bombed by Both Sides, Iraq Faces a War That Could Unravel It From Within
The map of Iraq since February 28 shows three overlapping wartime geographies layered inside one state. Anti-PMF strikes have spread…
Iraq’s Government Deadlock Has Produced Two Cross-Sectarian Camps Fighting Over One Session
Iraq’s parliament has scheduled a session on 11 April to elect a president, after a late-March signature drive claiming more…
Why Iran’s Kurds Are the Most Divided Kurdish Population
The Kurds of Iran are the most internally divided Kurdish population across all four parts of Kurdistan. Dialect, sect, geography,…
Written by
Arivan
Deterrence, Division, and Decay: How Iran Politically Contains Iranian Kurdish Armed Groups
Iran’s strategy toward Iranian Kurdish armed groups is not built around concessions. It is built around political deterrence, selective differentiation, and the exploitation of organizational weakness. This political layer sat…
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Written by
Arivan
The Logic Behind Iraq’s Militia Strike Campaign
Since 28 February 2026, US and Israeli airstrikes have hit positions belonging to at least fifteen PMF-affiliated militias across seven Iraqi governorates, from the Syrian border to the Nineveh Plain.…
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Written by
Arivan
Airstrikes Target Iraq’s Disputed Territories and Sunni Heartland, Not the Shia-Dominated South
From Jurf al-Sakhar and Baghdad to al-Qaim, Mosul, Kirkuk, and Tuz Khurmatu, the strike campaign has widened sharply since late February. But even as it has expanded, it still concentrates…
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Written by
Arivan
Why Iran’s Sunni Kurdish Islamists Are Not Joining the Anti-Regime War
One of the misleading assumptions on the Iran war is that the Sunni Kurdish belt should naturally drift toward any project aimed at weakening the Islamic Republic. On paper, that…
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Written by
Arivan
The Pipeline Card: Why the KRG’s Strongest Lever May Be Its Most Dangerous
Iraq’s oil minister said today that Kirkuk crude would be re-exported within a week through the old federal Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline “without passing through the Kurdistan Region,” after the KRG refused…
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Written by
Arivan
Iran’s Layered Counter-Strategy Aims to Close the Kurdish Corridor Before It Opens
Since the U.S.-Israeli air war against Iran began on February 28, 2026, much of the outside commentary has fixated on whether Iranian Kurdish factions could open a western ground front.…
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Written by
Yaseen Taha
One Year After Assad: How Post-Assad Syria Is Reshaping Iraq’s Shia House
More than a year after Bashar al-Assad’s fall, the real story is no longer the collapse of the old Syrian regime itself. It is the political and ideological crisis that…
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