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TEL AVIV: Five days ago, an undisclosed intelligence agency intercepted a telephone call made by the head of Iran’s Quds Force, Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani, in which he was heard ordering his proxies in Iraq to attack the U.S embassy in Baghdad, as well as other Israeli and American targets, with the aim of taking hostages, Israeli sources say. It’s unclear whether this was a lapse in tradecraft on the part of the usually savvy Soleimani or whether the notorious Iranian military leader’s phone calls were being routinely intercepted. Nor is it clear whether it was the US or another...

The same Tuesday night that a senior official in US President Barack Obama's administration was quoted calling Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu "chickens**t," yet more officials indicated the US is warming up to cooperation with Iran - the Islamic regime seeking nuclear weapons that has repeatedly declared its desire to destroy Israel. Senior US and Arab officials were cited by the Wall Street Journal saying that in recent months, America and Iran have grown closer through cooperation against their "common enemy", the Islamic State (ISIS), as well as over a shared interest in "stability" in Iraq and Afghanistan. American officials revealed...

History, as Marx famously said (by way of paraphrasing Hegel), repeats itself -- "the first time as tragedy, the second as farce." A catchy concept, to say the least. And while there's definitely something to it, it's also true that sometimes history does not repeat itself. Take American wars in Japan, the Koreas, Vietnam and Iraq. President Bush, addressing the Veterans of Foreign Wars, recently made a case -- a flawed case -- for a kind of core continuity linking these disparate conflicts. It's not that he didn't admit there are many differences among them ("There are many differences" among...

ROMA, August 7, 2007 – At the end of last week’s general audience, Benedict XVI surprisingly dedicated a thought to a sports event, the victory of Iraq’s soccer team in the Asian Cup: “I was pleasantly startled by the enthusiasm that spread among all the inhabitants, driving them into the streets to celebrate the event. As on so many occasions I have wept with the Iraqis, this time I rejoice with them. This experience of shared celebration reveals the desire of a people to have a normal and peaceful life. I hope that the event can contribute to realizing...

14 December 2005 -- Thousands of demonstrators protested in Baghdad and some Shi'ite cities today over comments in an Al-Jazeera television discussion program that they said insulted Iraq's top Shi'ite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani. In one southern town, police intervened when marchers turned their anger on a campaign office of former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, who leads a secular coalition. There were protests in Al-Najaf, Karbala, Al-Basrah, and other cities. The protesters were offended by comments by a guest on Al-Jazeera yesterday who reportedly said al-Sistani should stay out of politics. The comments were reported by the Iraqi satellite...

A Shia nuclear scientist said to be close to Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani is emerging as one of the frontrunners to become the new prime minister of Iraq. Hussain Shahristani spent a decade in Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison for defying former dictator Saddam Hussein's command to turn his scientific expertise to the development of nuclear weapons. Lakhdar Brahimi, United Nations special envoy, and Robert Blackwill, a Bush administration official, are still finalising the composition of the new Iraqi government. Officials say that balancing the communal, religious and ethnic groups within the new government is proving difficult and fluid, and caution that...

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - The spiritual leader of Iraq's Shiite majority said Saturday that the clergy-led United Iraqi Alliance must finally unite and form a government one month after the country's first democratic elections. Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani's effort to break Iraq's deepening political impasse came as Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena, 56, flew home to freedom. She left one day after being injured by American troops, who fired on her car as it sped her to Baghdad airport. The Italian intelligence agent who helped negotiate her release was killed. A roadside bomb killed three Iraqi army soldiers in Baghdad's Bab...

Ahmed Resain has his back to the door, so he does not see the gunman alight from a car outside his rudimentary Al Pasha hairdressing salon, in Baghdad's dusty Al-Salam quarter. The assailant strides deliberately into the shop and coldly turns to face Ahmed. He presses a pistol to the stunned barber's lower lip, carefully angling the weapon to ensure that the bullet exits through his left jaw. Ahmed, 37, is still standing - but three shots to his legs as the gunman makes his getaway drop him to the floor in a pool of his own blood. His survival...

BAGHDAD, Iraq - U.S. warplanes blasted insurgent positions in Sadr City, and American ground troops pushed into the sprawling Baghdad slum Thursday in a new operation aimed at disarming the militia of a renegade anti-U.S. Shiite cleric. Despite violence sweeping the country, Iraq's top Shiite Muslim cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani is insisting elections promised for January must be held on time, an aide said. With car bombs, shootings and kidnappings escalating and several cities effectively under insurgent control, there are concerns that Iraq will not be ready to hold a vote by the Jan. 31 deadline. But Shiites, who...

U.S., U.N. Blindsided on Iraq PM Announcement 1 hour, 55 minutes ago Add World - Reuters to My Yahoo! By Caren Bohan WASHINGTON (Reuters) - When word surfaced in Baghdad on Friday that Iyad Allawi would lead Iraq's interim government, confusion reigned both in Washington and at the United Nations, despite President Bush's assurances of an orderly handover. For weeks, the Bush administration has described the selection of the interim government as a process that was being spearheaded by U.N. envoy Lakhdar Brahimi in consultation with the United States and Iraqis. Bush, in a major address on Monday, laid out...

Healing Iraq Daily news and comments on the situation in post Saddam Iraq by an Iraqi dentist Wednesday, April 07, 2004 More on Sadr's insurgency Sadr's aide and head of his office in Najaf, Qays Al-Khaz'ali, has declared the latest looting and killing spree going on in several Iraqi southern cities as an Intifada against the occupation. Speaking on behalf of Muqtada, he stated that they will certainly not calm down any soon because the Quran orders them not to; "Fight those who fight against you". And he has also made it clear that they stand united with their 'Sunni...

Who is the Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani? The most important Shiite cleric in Iraq, a nation that is 60 percent Shiite. This means the reclusive 73-year-old leader wields a tremendous degree of influence over the nation’s future, experts say. What are his views on postwar Iraq? Sistani has tacitly supported the U.S. occupation of Iraq and wants the members of Iraq’s transitional and permanent governments—as well as the framers of a new Iraqi constitution—chosen through direct elections. He also wants Iraq to be an Islamic state. This concerns U.S. policymakers, who would prefer a secular Iraq. “If Sistani gets everything...

"But Marge, it works on any Ayatollah!" --Homer Simpson defending his purchase of a ten-year-old "Ayatollah Assaholah!" t-shirt... But the bit of news that has bothered me most was the report that southern Iraq's "Grand Ayatollah," Ali al-Sistani, issued a fatwa ordering his Shi'ite followers not to resist incoming American, British and Australian troops. Sure, I completely understand the concept of "the enemy of my enemy is my friend," but since when has America ever benefited in the long run from any fatwa issued by any ayatollah (much less a "grand ayatollah," a title that makes al-Sistani sound like he...