Iraq, a paralyzed country amidst growing crises

Text by: RFI Follow

The exchange of threats on Iraqi soil continues between the country's two main allies: Iran and the United States. On Wednesday, Donald Trump threatened to retaliate against the Iranians if they carried out new attacks on American forces in Iraq. On Thursday, the Iranian foreign minister said his country was only acting in self-defense. At the heart of this crisis, the Iraqi population is more and more worried, it sees more crises in a country still without government.

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Before the arrival of the coronavirus epidemic, Iraq was going through a pivotal period, the population was demanding change. She even pushed the Prime Minister to resign. And then the country froze.

As the great Iranian neighbor is one of the countries most affected by the epidemic, Iraq has installed confinement and closed all non-essential businesses. The unemployment denounced by the demonstrators has therefore spread to a large part of the population.

At the same time, the price of oil has dropped dramatically. Iraq, the second producer of black gold in the world, therefore loses hope of being able to fill its boxes. Desperately empty boxes, as the Minister of Health said when he was looking for funds to respond to the health crisis.

Despite everything, Iraq remains the site of confrontations between Iran and the United States. Washington has just announced the deployment of Patriot surface-to-air missiles at its Iraqi bases.

For their part, the Iraqi Shiite militias are more and more divided and therefore less and less controllable after the assassination by the Americans of their commander Abu Mahdi Al Mohandes.

Poverty, violence and division are therefore gaining the upper hand in a country which has just emerged from a terrible war against the organization Islamic State (IS).

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• Iraq

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