Podcasts about hashd

In this episode of Hold Your Fire!, Richard is joined by Crisis Group's Senior Iraq Analyst, Lahib Higel, to discuss the latest escalation between Iran-backed armed groups in Iraq and Syria and U.S. forces stationed in the region. They talk about the 29 January drone strike that killed three U.S. soldiers in a military base in Jordan and the U.S. retaliation against Iran-backed groups in Iraq, including a strike in Baghdad on 7 February that killed a senior commander from Kata'ib Hizbollah, which orchestrated the Jordan attack. They unpack the history of Kata'ib Hizbollah and other members of the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, their relations with other Iraqi Shia paramilitaries, including those in the Hashd al Shaabi, or popular mobilisation forces, and Islamic Resistance strikes on U.S. forces since Hamas's 7 October attack on Israel and Israel's subsequent assault on Gaza. They talk about how much control Tehran has over the Iraqi groups. They also discuss what the escalation means for the role and presence of U.S. forces in Iraq. For more on the topics discussed in this episode, visit our Iraq country page. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

William Morris reflects on his conversations with Lieutenant General Abd-al-Ameer Yarallah, Chief of Staff of the Iraq Army; Mr Adnan al-Fayhan MP; Mr Ahmad al-Asadi MP; General Jabbar Yawar, Secretary General of KRG's Ministry of Peshmerga; Hadi al Amri, the overall commander of the Hashid; NSA boss Kasem Alaraji; and ISCI Head Sheikh Homan Hamoudi.Support the show (https://www.justgiving.com/tncf)

William Morris talks with Lieutenant General Abd-al-Ameer Yarallah, Chief of Staff of the Iraq Army; Mr Adnan al-Fayhan MP; Mr Ahmad al-Asadi MP; and General Jabbar Yawar, Secretary General of KRG's Ministry of Peshmerga.Support the show (https://www.justgiving.com/tncf)

This event will explore the fallout of the recent murders of Qasim Soleimani, Commander of the Quds Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the senior commander of al-Hashd al-Shaabi and the founder of Kata'ib Hezbollah. The assassination, on 2 January 2020, of Qasim Soleimani and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis has thrown Iraqi and wider regional politics into turmoil. Soleimani was one of the most senior figures controlling Iranian foreign policy. Al-Muhandis, as the senior military commander in al-Hashd al-Shaabi, wielded as much if not more influence in Iraq than any other government figure. The speakers will discuss the likely regional and Iraqi fallout from their murders, how Soleimani’s death will influence Iranian power projection across the region, what retaliatory moves Iran is likely to undertake, the ramifications for Iraqi politics and security and how the ongoing protest movement will be affected. Toby Dodge is Kuwait Professor and Director of the Kuwait Programme at the LSE Middle East Centre. He is also Professor in the Department of International Relations. Toby currently serves as Iraq Research Director for the DFID-funded Conflict Research Programme (CRP). From 2013–18, Toby was Director of the Middle East Centre. He has been visiting, researching and writing about Iraq for over twenty years and his main areas of research include the comparative politics and historical sociology of the Middle East, the politics of intervention, the evolution of the Iraqi state, state-society dynamics and political identities in Iraq. Dina Esfandiary is a Director at Herminius and a Fellow in the Middle East department of The Century Foundation (TCF). Previously, she was an International Security Program Research Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and an Adjunct Fellow in the Center for Strategic and International Studies’ (CSIS) Middle East Program. Prior to this, she worked at the Centre for Science and Security Studies (CSSS) in the War Studies Department at King’s College London from February 2015, and in the Non-Proliferation and Disarmament programme of the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) in London from October 2009. Dina is the co-author of Triple-Axis: Iran’s Relations with Russia and China, and Living on the Edge: Iran and the Practice of Nuclear Hedging. She is completing her PhD in the War Studies department at King’s College London. Patrick Porter is Professor of International Security and Strategy at the University of Birmingham. He is also Senior Associate Fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, London. His research interests are great power politics, US/UK foreign and defence policy, and the interaction of power and ideas in the making of them. His book Blunder: Britain's War in Iraq (Oxford University Press, 2018) was shortlisted for the British Army Military Book of the Year Prize, 2019. He has appeared as an expert witness before the parliamentary Defence Select Committee, the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, and the Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy. Ghoncheh Tazmini is a Visiting Fellow at the LSE Middle East Centre. Formerly an Associate Member at the Centre for Iranian Studies at SOAS, where she was Iran Heritage Foundation Fellow, Ghoncheh conducts research on Iran-related themes as a British Academy grant-holder. She is currently researching Iranian-Russian alignment in the Middle East. Join the conversation on Twitter using #LSEMiddleEast

Guest: Elijah Magnier. We discuss what really happened in Iraq over the past week, leading up to the killing of the Iranian General Qassem Soleimani and the Iraqi PMU vice commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandes. We talk about the reactions, justifications and likely consequences. Also, Elijah provides some more clarification on the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF/PMU or Hashd al-Shaabi) and the way the different Iraqi security forces have been described inaccurately in western media.  Elijah Magnier is a veteran war correspondent and political analyst with over 35 years of experience covering the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).  FOLLOW Elijah Magnier @ejmalrai. Read and support his work at ejmagnier.com Around the Empire is listener supported, independent media. Pitch in at Patreon: patreon.com/aroundtheempire or paypal.me/aroundtheempirepod. Find all links at aroundtheempire.com.  SUBSCRIBE on YouTube. FOLLOW @aroundtheempire and @joanneleon.  SUBSCRIBE/FOLLOW on iTunes, iHeart, Spotify, Google Play, Facebook or on your preferred podcast app. Recorded on January 4, 2020. Music by Fluorescent Grey. Reference Links: What Comes Next After the US Assassination of Qassem Soliemani? The Options, Elijah Magnier  ATE Episode 140: Uprising in Iraq feat Elijah Magnier (12/18/19) ATE Episode 127: Iraq Protests, US-Iran War, Regime Change feat Elijah Magnier (10/6/19) ATE Episode 68: Iraq Politics & Stalled Idlib Op in Syria feat Elijah Magnier (9/17/18)  

Daily News Brief for Friday, January 3rd: *)Top Iran commander Qasem Soleimani killed in US strike The US has killed the head of Iran’s elite Al Quds force Qasem Soleimani in an air strike near the international airport in Iraq’s Baghdad. Abu Mahdi al Muhandis, a Hashd al Shaabi leader, an Iraqi paramilitary force closely allied with Iran, was also killed in the attack. Iran has vowed “severe revenge,” saying Soleimani was killed by "the most cruel of those on earth". *) Mass evacuations in Australia as weather threatens more fires The Australian navy has begun evacuating around one thousand people stranded on the east coast of the fire-ravaged country. This comes as weather this weekend threatens to push more fires with high temperatures and strong winds. At least 20 people have died, dozens are missing, and more than 1,300 homes have been damaged as fires burned an area nearly double the size of Belgium. *) Turkish parliament ratifies Libya troop deployment Turkey’s parliament has approved the deployment of troops to Libya with a 60 percent majority. The decision to send military assets came at the request of the UN-backed government in Tripoli, which is struggling to maintain its grip on power. The Tripoli-based Government of National Accord is facing an incursion into the capital by warlord Khalifa Haftar's militia. *) Indonesia plans cloud seeding as flooding death toll hits 43 Indonesia will carry out cloud seeding to prevent rain over capital Jakarta after deadly flooding and landslides. Indonesia will shoot salt flares into clouds in an attempt to break up rain clouds over Jakarta. This attempt at weather modification comes as floods and landslides have killed over 43 people and displaced tens of thousands. And finally, *) Female directors in Hollywood reach record highs in 2019 Women are inching closer to at least denting Hollywood’s towering glass ceiling. Women directors reached record levels in 2019 as they made up 10.6 percent of top movies with 12 directing top-grossing films, studies show. These films include "Frozen II," "Captain Marvel" and "Hustlers". Women comprised 20 percent of directors, writers, producers, editors and cinematographers on the top 100 grossing films of 2019.

Rod Reuven Dovid Bryant and Jerry Gordon bring back veteran Iran-watcher, best-selling investigative journalist Ken Timmerman to address the question of has the US lost the Middle East. Background are troubling developments with Iran, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Yemen, Syria, and Turkey. The bottom line: Iran intends to achieve its goal of controlling the area between the Persian Gulf, Red Sea and the Mediterranean with more than 25% plus of the world’s oil supply while perfecting its Shi’ite objective of surrounding and destroying Israel. As Stephen Bryen has noted in a recent Beyond the Matrix interview the US has “no strategy, no intelligence” and thus appears unable to deal with what Timmerman considers are dire geo-political threats. Notwithstanding the unresolved recent Israeli do-over election, Timmerman noted that Netanyahu has developed an effective strategic diplomatic and national security policy. He has avoided war with Iran, while punishing it in Syria, Lebanon and Iraq through deconfliction arrangements with Putin. Timmerman hopes that Netanyahu’s legacy will survive in whatever national unity government emerges. He points to a recent interview with Iran’s nefarious Quds Force Commander General Soleimani who noted that in 2006, Iran didn’t intervene in Lebanon against Israel as the US was engaged in War in Iraq. Now Iran and proxies surround Israel on three sides and is seeking to fulfill Shi’ite bizarre doctrine of destroying Israel and bringing back the 12th Imam. On the Trump Peace Plan Timmerman cites the resignation of Special Envoy Greenblatt saying “there’s no peace partner” – meaning the Palestinians. We next turned to Saudi failures to defend their oil facilities and display war making capabilities against the Houthi Iran proxy in Yemen, the survival of reformist Crown Prince Mohmmed bin Salman. Timmerman cited the ability of Iran and Iraqi proxies to launch a swarm of drones and cruise missiles that devastated the oil facilities and fields: “ their intel enabled it to the thread the needle of gaps in radar” of billion dollar US anti-Missile defense pointed in the wrong direction”. The Houthi attack that devastated a combined Saudi and Sudan force showed this is really a war between Iran and Saudi Arabia. He expects more Houthi cross border razzias against the Saudi seeking to disable the Saudi Royal Regime. Saudi royals are divided over anti-corruption strong arm actions by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salam (MBS) and taking responsibility for the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, despite the latter’s Muslim Brotherhood and support of Qatar. MBS is seeking reforms of conservative Wahhabism and diversifying economic reforms such as the ARAMCO IPO. Timmerman warns that Iran could play the Shi’ite card in the Saudi oil rich province through a network of Imams and Mosques. The takeaway is that the Saudis are not strong enough to take on Iran. Irony is that only the US, Israel and the UAE support MBS. Iraq, Timmerman believes that Iraq is falling apart with internal protests, Iran controlling 100,000 Shi’ite Hashd al Shaabi PMF militia fighters and Israel attacking their warehouses stocked with precision missiles. Iraq is effectively a “province of Iran ceding sovereignty to its neighbor”. The question remains will the US keep its remaining assets in Iraq at the Al-Sad airbase. Turkey’s Erdogan’s objective in his “safe zone” foray into northeastern Syria Kurdish homeland is to ‘smash Kurds in eastern Turkey, Syria, Iran and Iraq”. Erdogan, Timmerman contends, was the main patron of ISIS in Syria. Erdogan’s objective in invading northeastern Syria would be to release the 70,000 ISIS families and fighters. We end this fast-paced informative interview with a discussion of Timmerman’s views on the Whistleblower compliant over Ukraine issues and President Trump’s response. Beyond the Matrix 08OCT2019 - PODCAST

Iraq’s state-sponsored, majority-Shiite militias — called al-Hashd al-Shaabi, or the Popular Mobilization Forces — were central to the fight against ISIS, but there are major questions over their ongoing political and economic role. Enabling Peace in Iraq Center program manager Omar Al-Nidawi, American University in Iraq Sulaimani professor Akeel Abbas, and MEI’s Randa Slim join host Alistair Taylor to discuss what might happen to the force now that the threat ISIS poses has diminished.

Hassan Abbas is Professor of International Security Studies and Chair of the Department of Regional and Analytical Studies at National Defense University’s College of International Security Affairs (CISA). Aside from his expertise on Pakistan and Afghanistan, he also travels frequently to Iraq for research work on Hashd al-Shaabi (also known as Popular Mobilization Forces/Shia Militias). Along with addressing the main topic of the Taliban revival, he will compare and contrast Taliban and Hashd. His latest book titled, The Taliban Revival: Violence and Extremism on the Pakistan-Afghanistan Frontier (Yale University Press, 2014) was profiled on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart in August 2014. Abbas’ earlier well acclaimed book Pakistan’s Drift into Extremism: Allah, the Army and America’s War on Terror (M E Sharpe, 2004) remains on bestseller lists in Pakistan and India. He also runs WATANDOST, a blog on Pakistan and its neighbors’ related affairs. His other publications include an Asia Society report titled Stabilizing Pakistan Through Police Reform (2012) and Pakistan 2020: A Vision for Building a Better Future (Asia Society, 2011). Dr. Abbas serves as a Carnegie Fellow 2016-2017 at New America where he is focusing on a book project on Islam’s internal struggles and spirituality narrated through the lens of his travels to Islam’s holy sites across the world. He is also currently a Senior Advisor at Asia Society. He was the Distinguished Quaid-i-Azam Chair Professor at Columbia University before joining CISA and has previously held fellowships at Harvard Law School and Asia Society in New York. He regularly appears as an analyst on media including CNN, ABC, BBC, C-Span, Al Jazeera and GEO TV (Pakistan). His opinion pieces and research articles have been published in various leading international newspapers and academic publications.

The Center for Global Policy’s Director of Governance in Muslim-Majority States program, Dr. Kamran Bokhari, sat down with Geneive Abdo to discuss the status of Iraq's majority Shia community in the aftermath of the collapse of the ISIS Caliphate. Ms. Abdo, a prominent Middle East expert, is currently Resident Scholar at the Arabia Foundation where she specializes in political Islam and Iranian geopolitics. She is also a lecturer at the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University and the author of four books, including The New Sectarianism: The Arab Uprisings and the Rebirth of the Shi’a-Sunni Divide. Abdo says that the major political movement in Iraq is toward independence and getting foreign influence -- whether from the United States or Iran -- out of the country. Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani is playing a role in that. However, other senior Iraqi clerics fear that Iran will try to push in when the elderly al-Sistani dies. Abdo says that al-Sistani’s successor likely will be a younger figure and someone who is forward-looking and capable of focusing on creating an independent Iraqi state. ISIS, also known as Daesh, had been pushed out of Iraq, but Abdo says there is “overwhelming evidence” that ISIS is making a comeback in Iraq. A Daesh resurgence in Iraq would empower the Iranian-supported Hashd al-Shaabi militias, though many Iraqi Shia do not want those militias to gain influence. Moreover, Abdo says that around 100,000 displaced Sunnis have not returned home after the ISIS occupation, and the Iraqi government has washed its hands of the situation. These disenfranchised Sunnis are ideal recruits for groups like ISIS, Abdo says. Though the country’s political situation is a delicate one, Abdo says she believes that Iraqis will unite in the face of ISIS to prevent the group from taking over as much of the country as before. She says she has a strong sense that Iraqis want to prevent further violence because they have lived with violence for 17 years.

Phillip Smyth takes us on a deep dive into the world of the Hashd al-Shaabi, the Iranian backed militias (also known as the PMU, PMF, and "Shia Militias") fighting in Iraq. They've documented their own war crimes, shot unarmed protesters, and have been building the groundwork for their movement for years... So who are they?   - www.patreon.com/popularfront - www.popularfront.co - www.twitter.com/jake_hanrahan - www.instagram.com/popular.front  

In this episode John & David interview Prof Albert Wolf. Albert recently moved to the KRG from his last posting in Afghanistan. Here, we discuss issues surrounding KRG, Iraq, Syria, Iran and Israel. Here is extra information on some of the names/terms used in this episode for those who may not be familiar with them: Hashd al Shabi - also known as the Popular Mobilisation Units, largely Shia Iraqi, but has some Sunni, Christian and Yazidi Iraqis as well Sairoon Alliance of the Shiite Iraqi leader, Muqtada al Sadr. Al Sadr's seat of power is in Shiite-majority Basra Hadi al Amiri - a Shiite Iraqi politician (parliamentarian in Baghdad), formerly the head of the pro-Iranian Badr Organisation. He heads the Fateh Alliance electoral bloc. Al Amiri is a rival of Al Sadr Golden Division (also referred to the Golden Brigade) - Iraqi special forces focussed on counter-terrorism missions. Their rise to fame came about through their role in liberating the Kurdish city of Mosul from ISIS rule (2016-17) Basel 1 Rules - minimum capital requirements for banks Dayton Agreement 1995 - put an end to the Bosnian War in the former Yugoslavia JCPOA - Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (more commonly referred to as the Iran Nuclear Deal) est. 2015 OBOR - One Belt One Road - also known by the acronym (BRI) Belt and Road Initiative. The strategic transportation network formulated by the People's Republic of China (PRC) in order to overcome America's dominance of global maritime trade routes. RSS feed: http//feeds.soundcloud.com/users/soundcloud:users:141166782/sounds.rss STRATEGIKON can also be found on the SAGE International Australia (SIA) website: www.sageinternational.org.au For more information from SAGE International Australia, follow SIA on Facebook, Twitter & LinkedIn. If you are enjoying our podcast, please help us out by liking us on our various social media and podcasting platforms and by telling your friends and colleagues about STRATEGIKON. Many thanks! Support the show.

In this episode John & David interview Prof Albert Wolf. Albert recently moved to the KRG from his last posting in Afghanistan. Here, we discuss issues surrounding KRG, Iraq, Syria, Iran and Israel. Here is extra information on some of the names/terms used in this episode for those who may not be familiar with them: Hashd al Shabi - also known as the Popular Mobilisation Units, largely Shia Iraqi, but has some Sunni, Christian and Yazidi Iraqis as well Sairoon Alliance of the Shiite Iraqi leader, Muqtada al Sadr. Al Sadr's seat of power is in Shiite-majority Basra Hadi al Amiri - a Shiite Iraqi politician (parliamentarian in Baghdad), formerly the head of the pro-Iranian Badr Organisation. He heads the Fateh Alliance electoral bloc. Al Amiri is a rival of Al Sadr Golden Division (also referred to the Golden Brigade) - Iraqi special forces focussed on counter-terrorism missions. Their rise to fame came about through their role in liberating the Kurdish city of Mosul from ISIS rule (2016-17) Basel 1 Rules - minimum capital requirements for banks Dayton Agreement 1995 - put an end to the Bosnian War in the former Yugoslavia JCPOA - Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (more commonly referred to as the Iran Nuclear Deal) est. 2015 OBOR - One Belt One Road - also known by the acronym (BRI) Belt and Road Initiative. The strategic transportation network formulated by the People's Republic of China (PRC) in order to overcome America's dominance of global maritime trade routes. RSS feed: http//feeds.soundcloud.com/users/soundcloud:users:141166782/sounds.rss STRATEGIKON can also be found on the SAGE International Australia (SIA) website: www.sageinternational.org.au For more information from SAGE International Australia, follow SIA on Facebook, Twitter & LinkedIn. If you are enjoying our podcast, please help us out by liking us on our various social media and podcasting platforms and by telling your friends and colleagues about STRATEGIKON. Many thanks! See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Is Daesh on the verge of total defeat? US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson seems to think so. He says it's now time for some of those battling the terror group to go back home. And he's singled out Hashd al Shaabi, a coalition of some 40 militias, mostly funded and backed by Iran. They've been fighting Daesh alongside the US-backed forces of the Iraqi government. But Tillerson's remarks haven't gone down well with Baghdad, which calls the fighters the hope of the region. So what does the future hold for these fighters?