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National motto: Allahu Akbar (English: God is Great)

Official language

Arabic, Kurdish1

Capital

Baghdad2

President

Jalal Talabani

Prime Minister

Ibrahim al-Jaafari

Area - Total - % water

Ranked 57th 437,072 kmÂ² 1.1%

Population - Total (July 2005 est.) - Density

Ranked 44th 26,074,906 62/kmÂ²

Independence

1 October 1919 from the Ottoman Empire

3 October 1932 from the British

GDP (PPP) - Total (2003) - GDP/head

Ranked 76th $38.790 billion $1,600

Currency

Iraqi dinar

Time zone

UTC 3

National anthem

Mawtini3

Internet TLD

.iq

Calling Code

964

State religion

Islam4

1 - First language in 4 Kurdish regions

2 - The capital of the Kurdish Autonomous Region is Arbil 3 - The Kurds use Ey ReqÃ®b 4 - Citizens have religious freedom

The Republic of Iraq is a Middle Eastern country in southwestern Asia encompassing the ancient region of Mesopotamia at the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers and also including southern Kurdistan. It shares borders with Kuwait and Saudi Arabia to the south, Jordan to the west, Syria to the north-west, Turkey to the north, and Iran (Persia) to the east. It has a very narrow section of coastline at Umm Qasr on the Persian Gulf. A new transitional government was elected in January 2005, following the March 2003 invasion, led by American and British forces, which drove Saddam Hussein and his Ba'ath Party from power.

History

History of Iraq Iraq War

Modern Iraq became a British mandate (the British League of Nations Trust Territory of Iraq) at the end of World War I and was granted independence from British control in 1932. It was formed out of three former Ottoman Willayats (regions): Mosul, Baghdad and Basra. The British-installed Hashemite monarchy lasted until 1958, when it was overthrown through a coup dÃ©tat by the Iraqi army, known as the 14 July Revolution. It brought Brigadier General Abdul Karim Qassim's leftist government to power (which withdrew from the Baghdad Pact and established friendly relations with the Soviet Union), from 1958 till 1963, when he was overthrown by Colonel Abdul Salam Arif. Salam Arif died in 1966 and his brother, Abdul Rahman Arif, assumed the presidency. In 1968, Rahman Arif was overthrown by the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party. The Ba'ath's key figure became Saddam Hussein who acceded to the presidency and control of the Revolutionary Command Council (RCC), Iraq's supreme executive decision making body, in July 1979, killing off many of his opponents in the process. Saddam's absolute and particularly bloody rule lasted throughout the Iran-Iraq War (1980â€“1988), which ended in stalemate; the al-Anfal campaign of the late 1980s, which led to the alleged gassing of thousands of Kurds in northern Iraq; Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in 1990 resulting in the Gulf War; and the United Nations-imposed economic sanctions and no-fly zones which followed. The American-led 2003 invasion of Iraq removed Saddam Hussein's Government from power, replacing it with an interim American-backed Provisional Authority, and then an interim government. On January 30, 2005, Iraq held new legislative elections, changing the political face of Iraq, which had been previously a lay state, without any religion conflict,while it's now divided over a religious base having no tradition in the country. The current situation remains volatile while the new government attempts to re-establish security in the country.

Politics

Politics of Iraq

From 1979 to 2003, Iraq was under Ba'ath Party rule, under the leadership of president Saddam Hussein. The unicameral Iraqi parliament, the National Assembly or Majlis al-Watani, had 250 seats and its members were elected for 4-year terms. No non-Ba'ath candidates were allowed to run.

In November 2003, the US-managed Coalition Provisional Authority announced plans to turn over sovereignty to an Iraqi Interim Government by mid-2004. The actual transfer of sovereignty occurred on 28 June 2004. The interim president was Sheikh Ghazi Mashal Ajil al-Yawer, and the interim prime minister Iyad Allawi.

On January 30, 2005, a majority of the Iraqi people voted in an election conducted by their transitional government which elected a 275-member Transitional National Assembly. The Assembly will:

Serve as Iraq's national legislature. It has named a Presidency Council, consisting of a President and two Vice Presidents. (By unanimous agreement, the Presidency Council will appoint a Prime Minister and, on his recommendation, cabinet ministers.)
Draft Iraq's new constitution, which will be presented to the Iraqi people for their approval in a national referendum in October 2005. Under the new constitution, Iraq will elect a permanent government in December 2005.

Map Of Iraq

Under the Iraqi transitional constitution, signed March 2004, the country's executive branch is now led by a three-person presidential council. The election system for the council effectively ensures that all three of Iraq's major ethnic groups are represented. The constitution also includes basic freedoms like freedom of religion, speech, and assembly, and in many ways has been hailed as more liberal than the U.S. constitution. Controversially, however, it states that all laws that were in effect on the transfer date cannot be repealed. Furthermore, since the coalition forces are currently working to maintain order and create a stable society under the United Nations, coalition troops can remain in control of the country indefinitely despite the transfer of sovereignty. Since Iraqi forces are currently considered not fully trained and equipped to police and secure their country, it is expected that coalition troops will remain until Iraqi forces no longer require their support. However, these rules will be set aside once the Transitional National Assembly is seated.

On 5 April 2005, the Iraqi National Assembly appointed Jalal Talabani, a prominent Kurdish leader, President. It also appointed Adel Abdul Mehdi, a Shiite Arab, and Ghazi al-Yawar, the former Interim President and a Sunni Arab, as Vice Presidents. Ibrahim al-Jaafari a Shiite, whose United Iraq Alliance Party won the largest share of the vote, has been appointed the new Prime Minister of Iraq. Most power will be invested in him. As of mid-2005, the new Government has two major tasks ahead of them. The first is to attempt to reign in a violent insurgency, which has blighted the country in recent months, killing many Iraqi civilians and officials as well as a number of U.S. troops. (As of mid-2005, approximately 135,000 American troops remain in Iraq.) The second major task is to re-engage in the writing of a new Iraqi constitution, as outlined above, to replace the Iraqi transitional constitution of 2004.

In the meantime, the Iraqi government is considered by many international governments to be a legitimate government. According to the US administration, the judiciary in Iraq operates under the primacy of rule of law, so war criminals from the totalitarian regime of Saddam Hussein will get a fair and open trial, in which their rights will be subjected to due process and be protected by the scrutiny of a free press, the requirements of modern court proceedings. In contrast, the findings of the World Tribunal on Iraq in June 2005 are that Any law or institution created under the aegis of occupation is devoid of both legal and moral authority. The recently concluded election, the Constituent Assembly, the current government, and the drafting committee for the Constitution are therefore all illegitimate.[1]

Governorates

Governorates of Iraq

Governorates of Iraq

Iraq is divided into 18 governorates or provinces (Arabic: muhafazat, singular - muhafadhah, Kurdish: Ù¾Ø§Ø±ÛŒØ²Ú¯Ù‡ PÃ¢rizgah). Particularly in Iraqi government documents the term governorate is preferred:

Baghdad Arab, Kurdish

Salah ad Din Arab, Kurdish

Diyala Arab, Kurdish

Wasit Arab

Maysan Arab

Al Basrah Arab

Dhi Qar Arab

Al Muthanna Arab

Al Qadisyah Arab

Babil Arab

Al Karbala Arab

An Najaf Arab

Al Anbar Arab

Ninawa Assyrian, Kurdish

Dahuk Kurdish

Arbil Kurdish

At Ta'mim Kurdish

As Sulaymaniyah Kurdish

The constitutionally recognized Kurdistan Autonomous Region includes parts of a number of northern provinces, and is largely self-governing in internal affairs.

Geography

Map of Iraq

Geography of Iraq

Large parts of Iraq consist of desert, but the area between the two major rivers Euphrates and Tigris is fertile, with the rivers carrying about 60 million cubic meters of silt annually to the delta. The north of the country is largely mountainous, with the highest point being Haji Ibrahim at 3,600 m. Iraq has a small coastline with the Persian Gulf. Close to the coast and along the Shatt al-Arab (known as arvandrÅ«d: Ø§Ø±ÙˆÙ†Ø¯Ø±ÙˆØ¯ among Iranians) there used to be marshlands, but many of these were drained in the 1990s.

The local climate is mostly a desert clime with mild to cool winters and dry, hot, cloudless summers. The northern mountainous regions experience cold winters with occasional heavy snows, sometimes causing extensive flooding. The capital Baghdad is situated in the centre of the country, on the banks of the Tigris. Other major cities include Basra in the south and Mosul in the north. Iraq is considered to be one of the fifteen lands that comprise the so-called "Cradle of Humanity".

Economy

Economy of Iraq War In Iraq

Iraq's economy is dominated by the oil sector, which has traditionally provided about 95% of foreign exchange earnings. In the 1980s financial problems caused by massive expenditures in the eight-year war with Iran and damage to oil export facilities by Iran led the government to implement austerity measures, borrow heavily, and later reschedule foreign debt payments; Iraq suffered economic losses from the war of at least US$100 billion. After hostilities ended in 1988, oil exports gradually increased with the construction of new pipelines and restoration of damaged facilities. A combination of low oil prices, onerous repayment of the war debts (at around US$3 billion a year) and the costs of reconstruction resulted in a serious financial crisis which was the main short term motivation for the invasion of Kuwait.

Iraq's seizure of Kuwait in August 1990, subsequent international economic sanctions, and damage from military action by an international coalition beginning in January 1991 drastically reduced economic activity. Although government policies supporting large military and internal security forces and allocating resources to key supporters of the Ba`ath Party government have hurt the economy, implementation of the United Nations' oil-for-food program, started in December 1996, was to have improved conditions for the average Iraqi citizen. For the first six phases of the program (each phase lasting six months), Iraq was allowed to export limited amounts of oil in exchange for food, medicine, and some infrastructure spare parts. Subsequent investigation of the program has revealed significant corruption, with highly-placed U.N. officials being bribed, Ba'ath Party officials receiving lucrative kickbacks, and much of the money from oil sales being redirected into weapons research and acquisition by the Iraqi military.

In December 1999, the UN Security Council authorised Iraq to export under the program as much oil as required to meet humanitarian needs. Iraq changed its oil reserve currency from US dollar to euro in 2000. Oil exports were more than three-quarters of the pre-war level. However, 28% of Iraq's export revenues under the program are deducted to meet UN Compensation Fund and UN administrative expenses. The drop in GDP in 2001 was largely the result of the global economic slowdown and lower oil prices. Following the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the economy has to a great extent shut down and attempts are underway to revive it from the damages of the war and rampant crime.

During his year as the chief executive of Iraq, Ambassador Paul Bremer issued a series of orders designed to restructure Iraq's broadly socialist economy in line with neo-liberal thinking. Order 39 laid out the framework for the privatization of everything in Iraq aside from the "primary extraction and initial processing" of the oil reserves themselves, and permitted 100% foreign ownership of Iraqi assets. Other orders established a flat tax of 15% and permitted foreign corporations to repatriate 100% of profits earned in Iraq. Opposition from senior Iraqi officials, together with the poor security situation meant that Bremer's privatization plan was not implemented during his tenure, though his orders remain in place.

The second attempt to liberalize Iraq's economy is linked to the Iran-Iraq war debt. The creditors who financed the Iran-Iraq war had presented post-Saddam Iraq with a bill of nearly US$130 billion of debt and past-due-interest, which had not been serviced during the 13 years of sanctions Iraq Casualty . The Jubilee Iraq campaign argued that these debts were odious (or illegitimate) given that they came from loans to a dictator fighting a war which caused the Iraqi people a great deal of harm, and should therefore be written off unconditionally. The creditors, however, offered only a partial reduction and rescheduling of their claims in return for an Iraqi commitment to implement an International Monetary Fund economic program. This deal, with the Paris Club cartel of creditors including the U.S. and Britain, was signed on 20 November 2004. The following day the interim Iraqi National Assembly issued a strongly worded resolution rejecting the Paris Club's terms and declaring that the debt was odious.

However, since the invasion of Iraq in 2003 and subsequent transformation of the political and economic landscape, the economy of Iraq has been growing at a rate of 53% GDP every year (albeit starting from a low base). The Iraqi Ministry of Finance's efforts to curb inflation (now down to 20%) has contributed to this slow economic recovery in the midst of an insurgency.

Some claim that the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq exacerbated problems afflicting security, employment and quality of life. The rise of the post-Saddam insurgency and the lack of investment over a 30-year period, half of which is attributed to wars and Saddam Hussein's personal opulence, have left the state's infrastructure in desperate need of repair. The U.S. has spent eight billion dollars in the last year in an effort to improve the situation.

Although the output of electricity has gone down in Iraq, from nearly 5,000 MW to 4,100 MW, this is most likely due to increasing consumption and a more equitable distribution of the power being used in areas of Iraq which didn't get electricity before.

Demographics

Demographics of Iraq

Almost 70% of Iraq's population consists of Arabic speakers (mainly Iraqi but some Hejazi); the other major ethnic groups are the Kurds (25%), and Turkomans (3%) who live in the north and north-east of the country. The Kurds differ from Arabs in many ways including culture, history, clothing, and language. Other distinct groups are Assyrians, Persians, Lurs, Armenians and Yezidis (possible descendants of the ancient Mesopotamian culture). About 2,500 Jews and 20,000 - 50,000 Marsh Arabs live in Iraq.

Arabic and Kurdish are official languages and English is the most commonly spoken Western language. Syriac is also used by the country's Assyrian population.

There are more Arab Iraqi Muslims members of the Shiite sect than there are Arab Iraqi Muslims of the Sunni sect, but there is a large Sunni population as well, made up of mostly Arabs, Kurds. (Shiite 60% of total population made up of mostly Arabs, Kurds). Small communities of Christians, Baha'is, Mandaeans, Shabaks, and Yezidis also exist. Most Kurds are Sunni Muslims.

Demographic information from the 2004 edition of the CIA's The World Factbook:

Ethnic groups: Arab 66%, Kurdish 25%, Assyrian or other 4%
Religions: Muslim 93-95% (Shi'ite 60%, Sunni 40%), Christian, Yezidi or other 5-7%

Culture

Culture of Iraq

Music of Iraq

Miscellaneous topics

Economy: Iraq Stock Exchange, Iraqi Dinar, Economy of Iraq
Events: 2005 in Iraq, 2004 in Iraq, 2003 Invasion of Iraq, Post-invasion Iraq, 2003-2005, Iraqi insurgency
Geography: List of places in Iraq, Communications of Iraq, Transportation in Iraq, Arab Tribes in Iraq
Politics: Politics of Iraq, New Iraqi Army, Foreign relations of Iraq, Human rights violations in Iraq, Iraqi insurgency
History: List of Kings of Iraq, List of Presidents of Iraq, List of Prime Ministers of Iraq, British Mandate of Iraq, History of the Jews in Iraq
Others: Postage stamps and postal history of Iraq gay rights in Iraq

Iraq News