Iraq bids farewell to the year 2023 with local elections amid exciting local, regional and global ev

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[size=52]Iraq bids farewell to the year 2023 with local elections amid exciting local, regional and global events[/size]

[size=45]Translated by / Hamed Ahmed[/size]
[size=45]On the local level, Iraq in 2023 witnessed various events ranging from political, economic, sporting, and unfortunate fire incidents, while the beginning of the Al-Aqsa Flood War with a barrage of missiles on Israel on the morning of October 7 constituted the most important regional and global event whose repercussions are still present.[/size]
[size=45]In addition to the outbreak of the civil war in Sudan, and the exposure of Syria, Turkey, Libya, and Morocco to natural disasters that claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands, while the world witnessed the trial sessions of former US President Donald Trump, and the decision of American billionaire Elon Musk to replace the blue bird symbol for the social media outlet he owns with the new commercial symbol, X.[/size]
[size=45]Iraq had begun the year 2023 on January 6 by hosting the Arabian Gulf Championship “Gulf 25”, where the opening ceremony was held at the Trunk Al Nakhla Stadium in Basra Governorate, and the Iraqi Prime Minister Muhammad Shiaa Al-Sudani had delivered the opening speech in the presence of the President of the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA), welcoming the fans. Gulf on Iraqi soil. The tournament ended with Iraq being crowned champion for the first time since its victory in 1988.[/size]
[size=45]In another step to restore Iraq to its important pivotal Arab role, on February 25 and 26, 2023, Baghdad hosted the work of the 34th session of the Arab Parliamentary Union under the title “Arab support to enhance Iraq’s stability and sovereignty.” The conference was held in order to mobilize Arab support for Iraq and support it towards establishing its security, stability, and sovereignty and restoring Its historical status.[/size]
[size=45]Among the prominent political events that took place in the Iraqi arena in 2023 was the Federal Supreme Court’s decision on November 14 to terminate the membership of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Muhammad al-Halbousi, based on a lawsuit against him, as he was serving a second term in the position he assumed for the first time in 2018 according to the sectarian quota system that It was established in Iraq after the American invasion in 2003.[/size]
[size=45]In July 2023, the Presidency of the Republic issued a decree requiring the withdrawal of Decree No. 147 of 2013 appointing Cardinal Louis Raphael Sako to the position of Patriarch of Babylon over the Chaldeans in Iraq and the world, under the pretext that there was no constitutional or legal basis for issuing that previous decree, which forced him to leave his headquarters in Baghdad and move to the capital. The Kurdistan Region of Erbil. Sako considered this decision in a statement to be malicious politically motivated, not legal. He filed a lawsuit with the Supreme Court to challenge this decision, but the court responded on November 16 to his call because there was nothing that would prejudice the validity of issuing the Republican decree withdrawing his powers.[/size]
[size=45]One of the most prominent political events that took place in the Iraqi arena before the end of the year 2023 was the holding of local elections for the provincial councils on December 18, for the first time after a cessation of holding them since 2013. They were characterized by a low percentage of voters, amid calls to boycott them by the Sadrist movement, in which 6,000 candidates participated, competing for 285 votes. seats throughout the country, except for the Kurdistan region.[/size]
[size=45]In October, the Iraqi scene witnessed an escalation in attacks by armed factions, calling themselves the Islamic Resistance, on bases occupied by American forces, using missiles and drones, in response to the United States’ position of supporting Israel in its war on Gaza. As a result, the United States responded in late October by carrying out air strikes in the Jurf al-Sakhar area, killing 8 people. The latest development was a drone attack on the Harir base in Erbil, where American forces are located. The attack wounded three American soldiers, and the United States responded by carrying out strikes. On the morning of Tuesday, December 26, an air strike struck three sites inside Iraq, in which a member of the Popular Mobilization Forces was killed, and 20 others, including civilians, were wounded. The government condemned in a statement the attack, describing it as a hostile act that constitutes a violation of Iraqi sovereignty.[/size]
[size=45]Regarding the economic aspect, Parliament voted on June 12, 2023 to approve the draft state budget law for the three years 2023, 2024, and 2025, with a budget for 2023 amounting to $153 billion. This came after the approval of the Iraqi Council of Ministers on March 13, 2023, of the draft budget law.[/size]
[size=45]Also on the economic side, on March 25, Turkey stopped the flow of Iraqi oil exports through the Ceyhan pipeline passing through its territory at a rate of 450 thousand barrels per day, two days after a ruling issued by the International Chamber of Commerce stipulating that Ankara would be fined with compensation to Baghdad amounting to about 1.5 billion dollars for unauthorized exports. Through the tube between 2014 and 2018. Negotiations are still ongoing between Iraq and Turkey to resume oil exports, as the losses resulting from stopping exports have been estimated at more than 5 billion dollars.[/size]
[size=45]One of the painful incidents that Iraq witnessed in 2023, and whose reverberations reached around the world, was the tragic accident of a fire in a wedding hall in the Al-Hamdaniya district in Nineveh Governorate on Tuesday evening, September 24, in which 120 people were killed, with more than 200 other people who were present in the hall being injured, out of nearly 1,000. He was invited, and an investigative committee was then formed in the Ministry of Interior, declaring that the causes of the fire resulted from igniting fireworks within a building constructed of highly flammable building panels.[/size]
[size=45]On the regional and international level, on the morning of October 7, 2023, the world woke up to the news that Hamas had fired a barrage of thousands of rockets at Israel in an operation they called the Al-Aqsa Flood, during which it breached the security barriers that Israel had installed to protect its settlements, taking with them dozens of Israeli prisoners, after which Israel responded with retaliatory raids. On the Gaza Strip, where the war is still raging amid regional and international movements to stop it.[/size]
[size=45]Before this date, Sudan had witnessed, on April 15, 2023, an armed conflict between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the competing Rapid Support Forces. It began in the capital, Khartoum, and extended in subsequent days to other cities and towns in the northern state and the states of Darfur. The fighting caused hundreds of deaths and the displacement of millions, along with Failure to find solutions.[/size]
[size=45]The year 2023 also witnessed tragic natural disasters, represented by the earthquakes in Syria and Turkey in February, followed in September by the disaster of the Moroccan earthquake and the devastating floods in Libya. On February 6, 2023, an earthquake measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale struck both Turkey and Syria, killing 59,000 people in Turkey and more than 8,000 people in Syria, injuring thousands of others and displacing millions in the two countries.[/size]
[size=45]Several months after this disaster, during the month of September, both Morocco and Libya were exposed to two simultaneous natural disasters. On the morning of September 8, 2023, Morocco was hit by an earthquake in the Al Haouz province on the outskirts of Marrakesh in Morocco, causing more than 3,000 deaths and nearly 6,000 injuries. As for Libya, Storm Daniel struck the Libyan city of Derna, located on the Mediterranean coast, sweeping away entire neighborhoods and killing more than 5,000 people. On the international level, on August 3, 2023, the United States witnessed the appearance of former US President Donald Trump before a federal court in Washington on charges of attempting to change the results of the 2020 presidential elections, conspiring against the American state, obstructing an official procedure, and violating electoral rights as his supporters stormed the Capitol building.[/size]
[size=45]Among other international news that the world witnessed in 2023 was the decision of the American billionaire, Elon Musk, owner of the social networking site Twitter, to change the site’s trademark symbol from the blue bird, called Twitter, to another commercial logo with the symbol, X. Musk had mentioned in a comment He posted on Twitter on July 23, 2023 that as of today the site address will move from the blue bird Twitter to the X logo.[/size]
[size=45]• From international newspapers and agencies[/size]
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