Iraq and Saudi Arabia have opened the Arar border crossing for trade for the first time in 30 years. Officials from both countries- including the Saudi ambassador to Iraq and the Iraqi interior minister, travelled to Baghdad to open the border. Both goods and people will be able to pass through Arar which had remained closed since Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait. Relations between the two countries started to take a positive turn in 2017 when representatives from each country had made a visit to one another, consequently leading to the initiation of commercial flights between the two neighbours. The current prime minister of Iraq, Mustafa al-Kadhimi is said to be on good terms with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. One group known as the Ashab al-Kahf published a statement however expressing a rejection of “the Saudi project in Iraq”. The Iraqi prime minister welcomes the development, in hope that it may provide employment opportunities to 1/3 of the youth who are unemployed.
Approximately 4,000 prisoners are meant to be on death row, after being charged with terrorism offences in unfair trials, claims United Nation human rights experts. The UN has asked the Iraqi government to halt plans of executions, after 21 men were executed last Friday. 
Six Iraqi demonstrators have been killed from bullet wounds in the capital of Nasiriya after clashes have erupted between anti-government protestors and thousands of Muqtada al-Sadr supporters in Tahir Square. The Sadrist movement called for protests to back the reform of what he views a corrupt state. By Saturday morning, at least 60 people were wounded. Sadr on Wednesday called for relations between Shiite factions and parties to be repaired and to sign a political honour code from internal and external challenges facing the country. The leader of Al-Fatah Alliance, MP Karim Aliwi welcomed this proposal, stating that it will have popular support because it’s in the interests of the country and its citizens.  
Kurdish journalist Sherwan Amin Sherwani has been imprisoned for almost two months by Iraqi Kurdish authorities for political reasons fuelled by his involvement as editor-in-chief of Bashur, a magazine that has been openly critical of the Kurdish political elite. Notably, the Kurdistan Democratic Party and the powerful Barzani family who are based in Erbil and Duhok provinces. Whilst Sherwani’s lawyer is adamant that there is no legal basis for his confinement, representatives from the Kurdistan Regional Government have reiterated the reason for his arrest as being his threat to the security of the region. 
The responsibility of a rocket attack at an oil refinery in Northern Iraq has been claimed by ISIS. The attack occurred on the 29th of November, which yielded no casualties, the oil ministry says. There was another attack executed by them 8 days prior in the Salahuddin province where a bomb hit a civilian car. Members of ISIS then killed six Iraqi security officers that had arrived on the scene along with four civilians. 
On the 27th of November, a massage parlour was raided in Baghdad, where inside facilitates were destroyed with batons and men and women were violently pushed onto the street. Rab’Allah initially took responsibility for the raid on social media, stating it is their duty to ‘stand against societal corruption’ which has been inspired by ‘ideas of America and Israel’. A day later however, they denied their involvement in the incident. Other attacks followed on Christian and Yazidi-owned liquor stores across the capital. One shop owner said that he had been bribing armed groups to protect his business from being raided.
The US is set to reduce its troops in Iraq to 2,500 by January 12th next

Support the show

Reflections and observations from William Morris, Secretary General of the Next Century Foundation