Kurdish Policy Analysis

  Economy-related dimensions The economic fallout of the Israeli-US war on Iran, now entering its third week, is becoming clearer. Seasoned Washington-based reporter Laura Rozen  noted  on Mar. 15, “[US President Donald] Trump [is] putting his economic advisors, energy and interior secretaries on the Sunday shows, rather than his national security advisor, secretary of state, intelligence officials, or military leaders. What does that tell you?” Iran has intensified warnings aimed at Gulf Arab states. Tehran has urged residents near major Emirati ports to evacuate their homes, claiming that US forces are using such facilities to support strikes against Iran and thus signaling that they could become future targets of Iran. A similar warning was reportedly issued for several districts in Doha on Mar. 15. According to Bloomberg  estimates , if the Strait of Hormuz remains closed to most commercial traffic for around two months, Qatar and Kuwait could see GDP contraction...

  Tehran's strategy is built not on defeating its enemies but on simply surviving a prolonged war of attrition. The notion that such a vast and geographically complex country could be invaded and its regime toppled through external military intervention is, in political terms, a pipe dream. When Michael Corleone delivers this famous line in The Godfather Part III, it captures a tragic reality — the illusion of escape from a conflict that refuses to end. In recent days, the unfolding Iran war has begun to resemble that same grim dynamic for the US. For a brief moment, it seemed as if the conflict might be winding down as Iran's retaliation died down. In fact, US President Donald Trump signalled that the campaign against Iran had achieved its objectives. Israeli leaders spoke of decisive blows against Tehran's military infrastructure. But wars, particularly in the Middle East, rarely follow the scripts written in political speeches. Just as the rhetoric of victory began to ta...

  At least 112 people have been killed so far in United States-Israel attacks on Iran’s   Kurdistan province, according to a local official quoted by state media, a dark twist as Washington encourages Iranian Kurdish forces across the border in Iraq to launch a ground operation into Iran,   AzerNEWS   reports, citing Al Jazeera. The head of the Kurdistan Provincial Emergency Department on Friday said at least 969 people were injured in the attacks. Twenty-seven people are currently hospitalised in standard wards, while five are in intensive care units, the official, who remained unnamed, added. Kurds are an Indigenous ethnic minority of the Mesopotamian region, spread mainly across southeastern Turkiye, northeastern Syria, the semi-autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq, northwestern Iran and southwestern Armenia, sharing a distinct language and culture but lacking a state of their own. They are also estimated to make up nearly 10 percent of Iran’s populatio...