Iranian intervention in Iraq

Iranian envoy to Iraq said Tehran is willing to settle its differences and challenges with the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia as soon as possible, Iraqi media reported on Feb. 4.

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Jan. 18 that Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei "should be very careful" about what he says.

The Middle East has once again become the focus of the whole world since Jan. 3, 2020.

Thousands more U.S. troops were ordered to the Middle East on Jan. 3 after the United States assassinated Iran's military mastermind and Tehran promised "severe revenge."    

President Donald Trump said top Iranian general Qasem Soleimani was "terminated" when he was on the verge of attacking U.S. diplomats but he insisted that Washington is not seeking to topple Iran's government.

The US confirmed that it carried out a strike that killed Iranian Revolutionary Guards' Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani in the Iraqi capital Baghdad.

U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper said on Dec. 31 that he has decided to immediately dispatch a battalion of the 82nd Airborne Division to Iraq following violent protests at the American embassy in Baghdad.

As if we were short of tension in this region, a brand new crisis has erupted between Turkey and Iraq. 

Last week Baghdad bridled at Turkey's military presence in Bashiqa, a base north of Mosul where Turkey has been training Sunni fighters and Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga. The U.S. has sided with the central government of Iraq on this longstanding issue between Ankara and Baghdad.

Iraq?s prime minister will seek President Barack Obama?s help to acquire billions of dollars in drones and other U.S. arms to fight Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) during a U.S. visit next week, a senior Iraqi official said. 

Iran's direct support for an Iraqi push to dislodge the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group from the northern city of Tikrit could turn out to be "a positive thing" if it does not inflame sectarian tensions, the top U.S. general has said.

An influential Iranian general who has reportedly been near the front line against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) was quoted Feb. 12 saying the jihadists are "nearing the end of their lives".