Nouri al-Maliki

During a joint press conference in Paris with French President François Hollande on Oct. 31, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan used the acronym DA’ISH, instead of ISIL to refer to the fundamentalist organization of the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant.

Ankara has been closely following political developments in neighboring Iraq, hoping to renew bilateral relations with the country following its strained relationship with outgoing Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

Turkey’s Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu has been to the first to congratulate Iraq’s new Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi whose government was approved at Parliament late Sept. 8.

Davutoğlu held a telephone conversation with Abadi shortly after his Cabinet won a vote of confidence, state-run Anadolu Agency reported on Sept. 9, citing sources from the Prime Ministry office.

Gunmen attacked a Sunni mosque during Friday prayers and killed at least 64 people, prompting Sunni lawmakers to withdraw from talks on forming a new, more inclusive government capable of confronting the Islamic extremists who have overrun large swaths of Iraq.

Following decisive pressure from inside Iraq and the international community, Iraq’s defiant Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki announced his resignation from office to allow another Shiite politician, Haider al-Abadi, to form a new government.

Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu worked through the night to avert a coup attempt in Iraq when special forces loyal to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and armored vehicles were deployed across strategic locations in Baghdad late Aug. 10.

Iran is trying to work with Iraqi factions for a replacement for Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to form a new government in Baghdad but there are few suitable candidates, a senior Iranian official said on Tuesday.
   

BELGRADE - Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic sent a letter of support to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki on Tuesday against the unlawful and aggressive operations carried out by the extremist organization Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

The PKK on Aug. 5 urged all Kurds to take up the fight against the Sunni militants of Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), who have expanded their advance across Iraq into Kurdish-controlled territory.

The battle for the control of Iraq has now its reflections on the football pitch, with different groups having different views on the ‘beautiful game’ Iraqi football pitches have emerged as an alternative battleground in the struggle for the control of Iraq between the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the jihadist group that controls chunks of northern Iraq, and the embat