Source: MAPS IN MINUTES™ © RH Publications (1997)

A West Asian country bordering on Turkey on the north, Iran on the east, Syria and Jordan on the west, and Saudi Arabia and Kuwait on the south.

Physical

A waterway, Shatt al-Arab, at the delta of the Euphrates, gives Iraq access to the Gulf in the south-east. The Euphrates and its tributary the Tigris traverse the whole country from north-west to south-east, bringing silt to a vast depression, which would be widely cultivable were it not for salinity and erosion. This land, once known as Mesopotamia, was the site of early civilizations. To the north are mountains and desert plateaux, to the west all is desert, and the climate is one of extremes.

Economy

The economy is dependent on exports of oil, which constitute four-fifths of foreign exchange earnings. Other industries include chemicals, textiles, and leather; agriculture produces cereals, rice, vegetables, and livestock. Economic development is hampered by political and social instability following the Iraq War, outdated infrastructure, and corruption.

History

As Mesopotamia, the area of present-day Iraq is known as ‘the cradle of civilization’. It became a Muslim state in the 7th century ad following conquest by Arabia. It became a part of the Ottoman Empire in 1534, remaining such until the outbreak of World War I when the Turks were driven out by British forces. Following the British Mesopotamian Campaign in World War I, the country was occupied by Britain, who was then granted responsibility under a League of Nations mandate (1920–32). In 1921 Britain offered to recognize amir Ahd Allah Faisal, son of Hussein ibn Ali, sharif of Mecca, as King Faisal. British influence remained strong until the fall of the monarchy in 1958. Further political rivalries ended with the 1968 coup, which led to rapid economic and social modernization paid for by oil revenues and guided by the general principles of the Ba’ath Socialist Party. A heterogeneous society, of many ethnic and religious groupings, Iraq has long been troubled by periodic struggles for independence by its Kurds. It has often been isolated in Arab affairs by its assertiveness in foreign policy, though the long and bloody Iran–Iraq War launched against Khomeini’s Iran by President Saddam Hussein in 1980 received financial support from formerly critical monarchist Arab states. During 1990 a frontier dispute with Kuwait was followed by the Iraqi invasion and an international crisis, leading to UN sanctions and to the Gulf War. Following the end of the war, widespread uprisings among both Shia and Kurdish peoples were brutally suppressed. UN-imposed peace terms, a pre-requisite to the lifting of sanctions, included the destruction of chemical and other weapons, acceptance of UN inspectors, and disclosure of Iraq’s nuclear capability. Some progress was made, but in 1992 Iraq refused to accept a UN proposal that oil sales be resumed for humanitarian purposes pending resolution of outstanding differences. In mid-1992 Iraqi Kurds, who controlled an area of northern Iraq, elected their own national assembly. Renewed attacks by government forces on the Shia communities in southern Iraq in 1992–93 led to the establishment by Western powers of an exclusion zone over the area. Fighting between rival Kurdish groups broke out in northern Iraq in 1994 and continued in 1995–96. The United Nations continued to renew the period of economic sanctions on Iraq, while Iraq continued to reject the UN resolution to sell its oil to fund humanitarian efforts as a violation of its sovereignty. In 1996 government forces attacked Kurdish towns in the north of the country. In response, the USA bombed strategic targets in southern Iraq. Iraq’s failure to cooperate with UN weapons inspectors led to recurrent crises and air strikes by Britain and the USA in 1998 and 2001.

From late 2001 the USA adopted an increasingly hard-line attitude to Iraq, which culminated in the Iraq War of 2003 and the removal of Saddam’s regime. The USA and its coalition partners—primarily the United Kingdom—acted as occupying powers and carried through a programme to establish a democratic successor regime: an interim government was established in 2004, and a transitional assembly was elected in January 2005. The assembly drafted a new democratic constitution, which was approved by referendum in October 2005; elections under its provisions were held in December and a government under Nuri al-Maliki was established in May 2006. However, Iraq’s internal security was undermined by a terrorist insurgency, based in the Sunni community but with suspected al-Qaeda support, and coalition forces remained in the country until 2011. In 2010 disputed elections led to an eight-month delay before a national unity coalition government was formed, again under al-Maliki. Continuing problems included the reconstruction of Iraq’s infrastructure and economy, and the reconciliation of the formerly dominant but minority Sunni community to the newly powerful position of the more numerous Shias. From early 2014 the extreme Sunni jihadist group Islamic State (IS) took control of large areas of northern and western Iraq, including the country’s second city, Mosul , and imposed strict Islamic law. It also launched brutal attacks on the Christian and Yazidi communities. In August fears that Islamic State might capture the Kurdish capital of Irbil led to US air strikes. Al-Maliki resigned as Prime Minister and was replaced by Haider al-Abadi. The Iraqi army was shown still not to be an effective force when, with much larger numbers than IS, it capitulated in the key western Iraqi town of Ramadi. From early 2015, however, IS forces steadily lost ground to the Iraqi army, which was supported by US airstrikes and Kurdish fighters: Ramadi was recaptured in December and IS was expelled from Fallujah in June 2016 and Mosul in July 2017. By the end of 2017 IS no longer controlled any territory in Iraq.