How corruption and violence go hand-in-hand in Iraq

Iraq ranks in the bottom 20 countries in the world in Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index. (AFP/File)
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Updated 18 June 2021
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How corruption and violence go hand-in-hand in Iraq

  • Iran-backed groups willing to kidnap, kill to protect corrupt revenue streams: Experts
  • Iraq ranked 160 out of 180 in Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index

LONDON: Iran-backed militias in Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) employ assassinations, kidnappings and other forms of violence in order to protect the income they derive from widespread and deep-rooted corruption in Iraq, a panel of experts said on Thursday.

At an online event hosted by British think tank Chatham House and attended by Arab News, Mohammad Al-Hakim, senior advisor on economic reform to Iraq’s prime minister, said the country’s corruption crisis extends back to the days of Saddam Hussein’s rule, but is now systemic, politically sanctioned and backed by the threat of violence by Iran-backed groups.

“There’s a deep problem with the structure of the Iraqi state. This is very much a legacy that needs to be addressed,” Al-Hakim said. “The Iraqi state system has been deteriorating over 50 years.”

Iraq ranks in the bottom 20 countries in the world in Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index.

Government employees from the bottom to the top of Iraqi governance are engaging in systematic corruption, said Al-Hakim.

At the highest levels of the Iraqi state, civil servants have developed relationships with politicians that they use to line their own pockets and make money for their political allies.

Maya Gebeily, Middle East correspondent at the Thomson Reuters Foundation, said one of the underpinnings of this system is the PMF, which operates as a “cartel,” using violence to suppress any opposition or attempt to upturn the status quo.

“It’s important to think about this corruption as a cartel. There are players in the cartel who agree with each other on how to divvy up the spoils that are coming in either from tariffs, from a specific project, or into the ministry,” she added.

“That’s why there are no ‘turf wars’ … because everyone is benefitting from this system. As soon as the bodies start showing up, that means an economic loss.”

But that has not deterred the militias from violence, Gebeily said. They just do not use it against each other.

“What they’re doing is using violence against anybody who’s trying to root out corruption. Researchers, activists and others who’ve been extremely vocal about corruption have been kidnapped, murdered or otherwise harassed,” she said.

Law-abiding officials have been physically threatened, beaten up or had their families attacked when they refused to be complicit in corruption.

“Armed groups use violence as an enforcement mechanism to make sure their economic interests are secured,” said Gebeily.

“Let’s say you want to import cigarettes. Cigarettes are extremely lucrative to import, so you need an extremely powerful group — and the one I discovered was importing them was Kata’ib Hezbollah — to be involved in that import.”

Iraq’s most powerful armed militia, Kata’ib Hezbollah has directly attacked US forces in the country.

It is also widely believed to be behind a string of assassinations and kidnappings, including that of Hisham Al-Hashimi, a journalist who described the Iran-backed group as “the strongest and most dangerous group in the so-called Islamic resistance.”

Renad Mansour, director of the Iraq Initiative at Chatham House, said: “If we’re talking about power and where it lies in the Iraqi state, you only need look at the attempt by the prime minister to arrest Qasem Muslih, the leader of a brigade in the PMF, and why the prime minister was unable to keep someone who he accused of having a role in assassinations in jail.”

Mansour added: “Actually, these aren’t just militias. They have more connectivity to Iraq’s Parliament, to Iraq’s judiciary, than the prime minister does. They’re effectively connected to power in a more central way than the traditional and formal heads of state.”

This reveals the true and farcical nature of power in Iraq, Mansour said. “Those sitting on top of the system struggle with access to the state that they’re meant to be head of,” he added.

“Those apparently sitting outside the state actually have more connectivity to the essence, the power, the core of the state.”


Australia closes Iran embassy citing deteriorating security environment

Updated 4 sec ago
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Australia closes Iran embassy citing deteriorating security environment

SYDNEY: Australia has suspended operations at its embassy in Tehran due to the deteriorating security environment in Iran and has directed the departure of all Australian officials, Foreign Minister Penny Wong said on Friday.
Australia’s ambassador to Iran will remain in the region to support the government’s response to the crisis, Wong said.
“We are continuing planning to support Australians seeking to depart Iran, and we remain in close contact with other partner countries,” Wong said in a statement.


Israeli scientists reel after Iranian missile strikes premier research institute

Updated 4 min 9 sec ago
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Israeli scientists reel after Iranian missile strikes premier research institute

  • “It’s a moral victory” for Iran, said Oren Schuldiner

REHOVOT, Israel: For years, Israel has targeted Iranian nuclear scientists, hoping to choke progress on Iran’s nuclear program by striking at the brains behind it.
Now, with Iran and Israel in an open-ended direct conflict, scientists in Israel have found themselves in the crosshairs after an Iranian missile struck a premier research institute known for its work in life sciences and physics, among other fields.
While no one was killed in the strike on the Weizmann Institute of Science early Sunday, it caused heavy damage to multiple labs on campus, snuffing out years of scientific research and sending a chilling message to Israeli scientists that they and their expertise are now targets in the escalating conflict with Iran.
“It’s a moral victory” for Iran, said Oren Schuldiner, a professor in the department of molecular cell biology and the department of molecular neuroscience whose lab was obliterated in the strike. “They managed to harm the crown jewel of science in Israel.”
Iranian scientists were a prime target in a long shadow war
During years of a shadow war between Israel and Iran that preceded the current conflict, Israel repeatedly targeted Iranian nuclear scientists with the aim of setting back Iran’s nuclear program.
Israel continued that tactic with its initial blow against Iran days ago, killing multiple nuclear scientists, along with top generals, as well as striking nuclear facilities and ballistic missile infrastructure.
For its part, Iran has been accused of targeting at least one Weizmann scientist before. Last year, Israeli authorities said they busted an Iranian spy ring that devised a plot to follow and assassinate an Israeli nuclear scientist who worked and lived at the institute.
Citing an indictment, Israeli media said the suspects, Palestinians from east Jerusalem, gathered information about the scientist and photographed the exterior of the Weizmann Institute but were arrested before they could proceed.
With Iran’s intelligence penetration into Israel far less successful than Israel’s, those plots have not been seen through, making this week’s strike on Weizmann that much more jarring.
“The Weizmann Institute has been in Iran’s sights,” said Yoel Guzansky, an Iran expert and senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies, a Tel Aviv think tank. He stressed that he did not know for certain whether Iran intended to strike the institute but believed it did.
While it is a multidisciplinary research institute, Weizmann, like other Israeli universities, has ties to Israel’s defense establishment, including collaborations with industry leaders like Elbit Systems, which is why it may have been targeted.
But Guzansky said the institute primarily symbolizes “Israeli scientific progress” and the strike against it shows Iran’s thinking: “You harm our scientists, so we are also harming  scientific cadre.”
Damage to the institute and labs ‘literally decimated’
Weizmann, founded in 1934 and later renamed after Israel’s first president, ranks among the world’s top research institutes. Its scientists and researchers publish hundreds of studies each year. One Nobel laureate in chemistry and three Turing Award laureates have been associated with the institute, which built the first computer in Israel in 1954.
Two buildings were hit in the strike, including one housing life sciences labs and a second that was empty and under construction but meant for chemistry study, according to the institute. Dozens of other buildings were damaged.
The campus has been closed since the strike, although media were allowed to visit Thursday. Large piles of rock, twisted metal and other debris were strewn on campus. There were shattered windows, collapsed ceiling panels and charred walls.
A photo shared on X by one professor showed flames rising near a heavily damaged structure with debris scattered on the ground nearby.
“Several buildings were hit quite hard, meaning that some labs were literally decimated, really leaving nothing,” said Sarel Fleishman, a professor of biochemics who said he has visited the site since the strike.
Life’s work of many researchers is gone
Many of those labs focus on the life sciences, whose projects are especially sensitive to physical damage, Fleishman said. The labs were studying areas like tissue generation, developmental biology or cancer, with much of their work now halted or severely set back by the damage.
“This was the life’s work of many people,” he said, noting that years’ or even decades’ worth of research was destroyed.
For Schuldiner, the damage means the lab he has worked at for 16 years “is entirely gone. No trace. There is nothing to save.”
In that once gleaming lab, he kept thousands of genetically modified flies used for research into the development of the human nervous system, which helped provide insights into autism and schizophrenia, he said.
The lab housed equipment like sophisticated microscopes. Researchers from Israel and abroad joined hands in the study effort.
“All of our studies have stopped,” he said, estimating it would take years to rebuild and get the science work back on track. “It’s very significant damage to the science that we can create and to the contribution we can make to the world.”


IAEA chief identifies Isfahan as Iran’s planned uranium enrichment site

Updated 15 min 5 sec ago
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IAEA chief identifies Isfahan as Iran’s planned uranium enrichment site

  • Day before Israel launched its military strikes, Iran announced it had built a new uranium enrichment facility, which it would soon equip and bring online
  • Israel’s attacks on Iranian nuclear facilities destroyed one of those plants and put another out of action by killing its power supply

VIENNA: UN nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi on Thursday identified Isfahan, home to one of Iran’s biggest nuclear facilities, as the location of a uranium enrichment plant that Iran said it would soon open in retaliation for a diplomatic push against it.
The day before Israel launched its military strikes against Iranian targets including nuclear facilities last Friday, Iran announced it had built a new uranium enrichment facility, which it would soon equip and bring online. Tehran did not provide details such as the plant’s location.
Iran’s announcement was part of its retaliation against a resolution passed by the International Atomic Energy Agency’s 35-nation Board of Governors declaring Tehran in breach of its non-proliferation obligations over issues including its failure to credibly explain uranium traces found at undeclared sites.
Had it gone online, the new enrichment plant would have been the fourth in operation in Iran. But Israel’s attacks on Iranian nuclear facilities destroyed one of those plants and put another out of action by killing its power supply, the IAEA has said.
“There was an announcement, quite coincidentally, on the eve of the start of the military operation by Israel of a new enrichment facility in Isfahan, precisely, that we were going to be inspecting immediately, but this inspection had to be postponed, we hope, because of the start of the military operation,” Grossi said.
He did not say where exactly in Isfahan the planned plant was, but he said the nuclear complex there is “huge.”
The IAEA has previously reported that Israeli military strikes on Friday damaged four buildings at Isfahan, including the Uranium Conversion Facility that transforms “yellowcake” uranium into the uranium hexafluoride feedstock for centrifuges so that it can be enriched.
Grossi told the BBC on Monday that the “underground spaces” at Isfahan did not seem to have been affected. Officials say those spaces are also where much of Iran’s most highly enriched uranium stock has been stored.
The IAEA has not, however, been able to carry out any inspections since the strikes.


Jordan FM holds talks with French, Irish, Slovak counterparts on Gaza crisis, Iran tensions

Updated 46 min 17 sec ago
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Jordan FM holds talks with French, Irish, Slovak counterparts on Gaza crisis, Iran tensions

  • Ayman Safadi says negotiations between Israel and Iran ‘the only way to protect the region from the expansion of the war’
  • Foreign minister praises France, Saudi Arabia for co-leading efforts to organize global forum on two-state solution

AMMAN: Jordan’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Ayman Safadi held a series of discussions on Thursday with European counterparts from France, Ireland, and Slovakia, focusing on efforts to end the escalating crises in the Middle East and revive diplomatic paths toward peace.

In Paris, Safadi met with French Minister of Europe and Foreign Affairs Jean-Noel Barrot, with the two ministers stressing the urgent need to de-escalate tensions between Israel and Iran and resume negotiations as “the only way to protect the region from the expansion of the war and its dangerous repercussions.”

Safadi welcomed talks planned for Friday in Geneva between France, Germany, the US, and Iran, expressing hope they would give diplomacy a chance to resolve the Iranian nuclear issue, the Jordan News Agency reported.

Both he and Barrot also called for intensified international efforts to secure a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, and ensure the immediate and sufficient delivery of humanitarian aid.

Safadi said the inhumane reality in Gaza, marked by massacres, starvation, and collective suffering, must end, and warned that illegal Israeli measures in the West Bank are further eroding chances of a viable two-state solution.

He reiterated Jordan’s backing of the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative and called for international recognition of the state of Palestine, saying such a move affirms the “inevitability” of the two-state solution as the only path to a just peace.

Safadi also praised France’s “key” role in co-leading efforts, alongside Saudi Arabia, to organize an international conference on the two-state solution, which had been postponed due to the recent Iran-Israel escalation.

The ministers also addressed the situation in Syria, highlighting the need for a unified approach that supports Syria’s sovereignty, eliminates terrorism, ensures refugee return and lays the groundwork for reconstruction.

They reaffirmed their commitment to Lebanon’s stability and the wider humanitarian mission in Gaza.

In a separate phone call with Irish Minister of Foreign Affairs Simon Harris, Safadi discussed similar themes, with both stressing that ending the war and resuming nuclear negotiations with Iran were essential to resolving broader regional instability.

They called for enhanced UN humanitarian access to Gaza and warned against actions in the West Bank that could jeopardize the two-state solution. Safadi thanked Ireland for its longstanding support of Palestinian statehood and rights in line with international law.

Later in the day, Safadi also held talks with Slovak Foreign Minister Juraj Blanar. The pair echoed concerns over regional escalation and underlined the urgency of a ceasefire in Gaza.

Safadi and Blanar also explored ways to deepen ties and expand cooperation between Jordan and the EU, reaffirming a shared commitment to regional peace and security.


Israel changing ‘the world’ with Iran war: Netanyahu

Updated 57 min 17 sec ago
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Israel changing ‘the world’ with Iran war: Netanyahu

  • The Israeli prime minister welcomed ‘all help‘ in destroying the Islamic republic’s nuclear sites, in an apparent nod to the US

JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that Israel was “changing the face of the world” in its war with Iran, as he welcomed “all help” in destroying the Islamic republic’s nuclear sites.
“I said that we’re changing the face of the Middle East, and now I say we’re changing the face of the world,” he told public broadcaster Kansas
Seven days into the war, Netanyahu said Israeli forces were ahead of schedule in their offensive against Iranian nuclear and missile sites, but refused to provide a clear timeline for an end to the most intense confrontation in history with arch foe Tehran.
“We are at war. I’m not going to reveal our timeline. I’m not going to tell them (the Iranians) what we’re preparing,” said Netanyahu.
“When you enter a war, you know when it begins, but not when it ends,” he added.
He said Israel had already destroyed “more than half” of Iran’s missile launchers and was “capable of striking all of Iran’s nuclear facilities.”
But, in an apparent nod to key ally the United States, Netanyahu added: “All help is welcome.”
During his interview with Kan, Netanyahu went on to say that US President Donald Trump “will do what is good for for the United States, and I will do what is good for the State of Israel.”
Following the remarks, Trump offered a fresh timeline for a possible US intervention in the conflict, saying in a statement that he would decide whether to attack Iran within the next two weeks due to a “substantial” chance of negotiations.