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Iraq Condemns US Attempt to Undermine its Judiciary

Iraqi Supreme Judicial Council President Faiq Zidan (second left), Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani (C) and Popular Mobilization Forces leader Falih al-Fayyadh. (AFP)
Iraqi Supreme Judicial Council President Faiq Zidan (second left), Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani (C) and Popular Mobilization Forces leader Falih al-Fayyadh. (AFP)
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Iraq Condemns US Attempt to Undermine its Judiciary

Iraqi Supreme Judicial Council President Faiq Zidan (second left), Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani (C) and Popular Mobilization Forces leader Falih al-Fayyadh. (AFP)
Iraqi Supreme Judicial Council President Faiq Zidan (second left), Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani (C) and Popular Mobilization Forces leader Falih al-Fayyadh. (AFP)

The Iraqi Foreign Ministry condemned on Saturday Republican Senator Mike Waltz for submitting a bill that would designate Iraq's Supreme Judicial Council and its president, Faiq Zidan, as "Iranian-controlled assets."

Waltz, a member of the House Armed Services and Foreign Affairs Committees, said he was set to introduce an amendment to the foreign appropriations bill to make the designation.

The measure is expected to garner bipartisan support and make its way into the final legislation, reported the Washington Free Beacon.

The Foreign Ministry slammed Waltz’s move as "flagrant meddling in Iraqi affairs."

Acting parliament Speaker Mohsen al-Mandalawi said the amendment was a "dangerous precedent."

The proposal has already riled members of the pro-Iran Coordination Framework.

"If adopted, the measure will mark the first time that Congress, and therefore the Biden administration, is calling out by name the Iraqi leaders who are enabling Iran to overtake Baghdad's government and use Iraq to foment terrorism," reported the Washington Free Beacon.

"Congressional sources said they are counting on the measure to serve as a wake-up call to Iraq's government as the country morphs into an Iranian client state," it added.

"Zidan and his judicial council are the leading forces advancing Iran's interest in Iraq and helping Tehran's militia groups gain a foothold in the country. His court is behind a contested February 2022 ruling that required a two-thirds majority to select the president of Iraq," it reported.

"Through 'soft war' and the use (and misuse) of the legal system and courts, the coalition of [Iranian] militias has hit upon a winning combination that largely uses non-kinetic tools to build a trifecta of power that comprises the judiciary, civilian and military sides of the executive branch, as well as the legislature," the Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP) think tank wrote in a 2023 analysis of the situation. Through this effort, Iran effectively created "regime change" in Iraq, said the Washington Free Beacon.

His 2022 ruling "shifted the goalposts for government formation, making it almost impossible to form a government without a super-majority, including the [Iranian] militias" and the Coordination Framework, according to WINEP. This decision marked "the turning on its head of democracy in Iraq and a return to the minority rule," it added.

This decision effectively prevented Iraq's anti-Iran elements, such as the Kurds, from forming a more US-friendly government, said the Washington Free Beacon.

Legal sources explained that the proposal, if approved, would bar various American authorities from working with Zidan and Iraq’s judiciary overall. The United States’ allies may also follow suit.

Izzat all-Shabandar, a politician close to the Coordination Framework, condemned Waltz’s proposal as flagrant meddling in Iraqi internal affairs.

Former member of the Iraqi High Commission for Human Rights Ali al-Bayati said the proposal would "isolate Iraq on the international stage the way late president Saddam Hussein’s policies did."

In a tweet on the X platform, he warned that the move "was very dangerous and demands rapid diplomatic efforts" to counter it. It demands more than just performative statements.

He warned that if the proposal is enacted, then practical steps would be taken to isolate Iraq on the international arena.

Former diplomat Ghazi al-Faisal said the American move aims to counter Iran’s hegemony over Iraq.

He told Asharq Al-Awsat that Washington views Iran’s agenda in Iraq as terrorist. It also views it as the world’s top state-sponsor of terrorism.

Congress’ move will complicate relations and create crises between Washington and Baghdad, he added

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Arab World

Fires Have Become the Most Visible Sign of the Conflict Heating Up on the Lebanon-Israel Border

FILE - Shells that appear to be white phosphorus from Israeli artillery explode over Dahaira, a Lebanese border village with Israel, south Lebanon, on Oct. 16, 2023. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla, File)
FILE - Shells that appear to be white phosphorus from Israeli artillery explode over Dahaira, a Lebanese border village with Israel, south Lebanon, on Oct. 16, 2023. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla, File)
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Fires Have Become the Most Visible Sign of the Conflict Heating Up on the Lebanon-Israel Border

FILE - Shells that appear to be white phosphorus from Israeli artillery explode over Dahaira, a Lebanese border village with Israel, south Lebanon, on Oct. 16, 2023. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla, File)
FILE - Shells that appear to be white phosphorus from Israeli artillery explode over Dahaira, a Lebanese border village with Israel, south Lebanon, on Oct. 16, 2023. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla, File)

With cease-fire talks faltering in Gaza and no clear offramp for the conflict on the Lebanon-Israel border, the daily exchanges of strikes between Hezbollah and Israeli forces have sparked fires that are tearing through forests and farmland on both sides of the frontline.
The blazes — exacerbated by supply shortages and security concerns — have consumed thousands of hectares of land in southern Lebanon and northern Israel, becoming one of the most visible signs of the escalating conflict, The Associated Press said.
There is an increasingly real possibility of a full-scale war — one that would have catastrophic consequences for people on both sides of the border. Some fear the fires sparked by a larger conflict would also cause irreversible damage to the land.
Charred remains in Lebanon and in Israel. Images of fires sparked by Hezbollah's rockets have driven public outrage and spurred Israel’s far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, to declare last month that it is “time for all of Lebanon to burn.”
Much of it was already burning.
Fires in Lebanon began in late April — earlier than the usual fire season — and have torn through the largely rural areas along the border.
The town of Shebaa, tucked in the mountains on Lebanon’s southeastern edge, has little Hezbollah presence, and the town hasn't been targeted as frequently as other border villages. But the sounds of shelling still boom regularly, and in the mountains above it, formerly oak-lined ridges are charred and bare.
In a cherry orchard on the outskirts of town, clumps of fruit hang among browned leaves after a fire sparked by an Israeli strike tore through. Firefighters and local men — some using their shirts to beat out flames — stopped the blaze from reaching houses and UN peacekeeper center nearby.
“Grass will come back next year, but the trees are gone,” said Moussa Saab, whose family owns the orchard. “We’ll have to get saplings and plant them, and you need five or seven years before you can start harvesting.”
Saab refuses to leave with his wife and 8-year-old daughter. They can't afford to live elsewhere, and they fear not being able to return, as happened to his parents when they left the disputed Shebaa Farms area.
In Israel, the slopes of Mount Meron, Israel’s second-highest mountain and home to an air base, were long covered in native oak trees, a dense grove providing shelter to wild pigs, gazelles, and rare species of flowers and fauna.
Now the green slopes are interrupted by three new burn scars — the largest a few hundred square meters — remnants of a Hezbollah explosive drone shot down a few weeks ago. Park rangers worry that devastation has just begun.
“The damage this year is worse a dozen times over this year,” said Shai Koren, of the northern district for Israel’s Nature and Parks Authority.
Looking over the slopes of Meron, Koren said he doesn’t expect this forest to survive the summer: “You can take a before and after picture.”
Numbers and weapons
Since the war began, the Israeli military has tracked 5,450 launches toward northern Israel. According to Israeli think tank the Alma Research and Education Center, most early launches were short-range anti-tank missiles, but Hezbollah's drone usage has increased.
In Lebanon, officials and human rights groups accuse Israel of firing white phosphorus incendiary shells at residential areas, in addition to regular artillery shelling and airstrikes.
The Israeli military says it uses white phosphorus only as a smokescreen, not to target populated areas. But even in open areas, the shells can spark fast-spreading fires.
The border clashes began Oct. 8, a day after the Hamas-led incursion into southern Israel that killed around 1,200 people and sparked the war in Gaza. There, more than 37,000 have been killed, according to Gaza's Health Ministry.
Hezbollah began launching rockets into northern Israel to open what it calls a “support front” for Hamas, to pull Israeli forces away from Gaza.
Israel responded, and attacks spread across the border region. In northern Israel, 16 soldiers and 11 civilians have been killed. In Lebanon, more than 450 people — mostly fighters, but also 80-plus civilians and noncombatants — have been killed.
Exchanges have intensified since early May, when Israel launched its incursion into the southern Gaza city of Rafah. That coincided with the beginning of the hot, dry wildfire season.
Since May, Hezbollah strikes have resulted in 8,700 hectares (about 21,500 acres) burned in northern Israel, according to Israel's Nature and Parks Authority.
Eli Mor, of Israel’s Fire and Rescue, said drones, which are much more accurate than rockets, often “come one after another, the first one with a camera and the second one will shoot.”
“Every launch is a real threat,” Mor added.
In southern Lebanon, about 4,000 hectares (10,000 acres) have burned due to Israeli strikes, said George Mitri, of the Land and Natural Resources program at the University of Balamand. In the two years before, he said, Lebanon's total area burned annually was 500 to 600 hectares (1,200 to 1,500 acres).
Fire response Security concerns hamper the response to a fire's first crucial hours. Firefighting planes are largely grounded over fears they'll be shot down. On the ground, firefighters often can't move without army escorts.
“If we lose half an hour or an hour, it might take us an extra day or two days to get the fire under control,” said Mohammad Saadeh, head of the Shebaa civil defense station. The station responded to 27 fires in three weeks last month — nearly as many as a normal year.
On the border's other side, Moran Arinovsky used to be a chef and is now deputy commander of the emergency squad at Kibbutz Manara. With about 10 others, he's fought more than 20 fires in the past two months.
Mor, of Israel’s Fire and Rescue, said firefighters often must triage.
“Sometimes we have to give up on open areas that are not endangering people or towns,” Mor said.
The border areas are largely depopulated. Israel's government evacuated a 4-kilometer strip early in the war, leaving only soldiers and emergency personnel. In Lebanon, there's no formal evacuation order, but large swathes have become virtually uninhabitable.
Some 95,000 people in Lebanon and 60,000 people in Israel have been displaced for nine months.
Kibbutz Sde Nehemia didn't evacuate, and Efrat Eldan Schechter said some days she watches helplessly as plumes of smoke grow closer to home.
“There's a psychological impact, the knowledge and feeling that we’re alone,” she said, because firefighters can't access certain areas.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that as fighting in Gaza winds down, Israel will send more troops to its northern border. That could open a new front and raise the risk of more destructive fires.