Iraq’s president hospitalized after stroke

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani suffered from a stroke on Monday and is in intensive care in a Baghdad hospital in stable but critical condition. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is reportedly at the hospital with Talabani, and according to his spokesperson they are deciding whether to transport him abroad for care. Talabani, 79, has struggled with his health in recent years, undergoing heart surgery in the United States in 2008 and spinal surgery in Germany this year. Talabani’s post as president is largely ceremonial, but he has some powers including signing off on laws approved by parliament and blocking executions. Talabani is Iraq’s first Kurdish president, and as a fighter in the Kurdish guerilla movement spent time in exile under Sadam Hussein’s rule. As president he has been a rare unifying force, and has been able to mediate ethnic disputes in the government. Of late, he has been working to resolve the conflict between the government and the country’s Kurdish population, and recently brokered a deal with the Kurdish President Masoud Barzani of the semiautonomous north over disputed border areas and oil field rights.

Syria

U.S. NBC News chief foreign correspondent Richard Engel and his three or four person crew who were abducted in Syria are reportedly free and safe in Turkey. The journalists were released on Monday after being held for five days, after a gunfight between their captors and opposition forces. It is unknown who captured Engel and his team, whose names have not yet been released, but Engel said he believes it was Syrian government loyalists. A statement from NBC said the captors were not believed to be aligned with a pro-government group. Additionally, three steel workers, two Russian citizens and an Italian, were kidnapped Monday evening on the road between Homs and Tartus, the coastal city where Russia has a port, according to Russian authorities. Russian Foreign Minster Sergei Lavrov, said "all necessary steps are being taken in Syria and other countries that may influence the situation." Also, as conditions deteriorate in Syria, Russia has sent two warships to Tartus according to Russia’s Interfax news agency. Meanwhile, opposition fighters have reportedly made gains, overtaking the central town of Halfaya and attacking an army base near the southern city of Deraa. Opposition forces along with some Palestinian fighters have also reportedly pushed out pro-government fighters from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command from the adjoining Yarmouk and Palestine refugee camps. The camps are to the south of Damascus, and could further opposition gains surrounding Syria’s capital. However, Syrian forces are gathering in the camp and there have been reports of sniper fire in the southern areas of Yarmouk. 

Headlines  

• Egypt’s Prosecutor General Talaat Ibrahim has resigned over his controversial appointment in part of President Morsi’s November constitutional decree that ignited mass protests in November.
• Iran said it would not suspend high grade uranium enrichment ahead of a new round of planned talks with world powers.
• Israel approved plans to build 1,500 additional homes in an East Jerusalem settlement in a response to the Palestinian recent gain of observer status at the U.N. General Assembly. 

Arguments and Analysis

Will Kurdistan’s Energy Wealth Lead to the Next Iraq War? (Jay Newton-Small, Time)

"Playing tourists in one of the world’s most dangerous cities is not how we imagined we’d end up spending Tuesday, but there we were atop Kirkuk’s ancient citadel admiring – and mourning – the crumbling ruins of the five mosques that once occupied the plateau overlooking the contested city."See, look," says Akam Omar Osman, pointing to the north. "You see how in Kurdish areas we pick up the trash, we have services. And then how in the south," he says, swinging around, "you have nothing." Osman is the translator provided by the Peshmerga Kurdish forces who brought us here.

The north does look to be relatively bustling, while storm clouds gather over the quieter southern areas of the city, filled with banks of trash. This pivotal oil city, home to Iraq‘s main pipeline and numerous refineries, is part of the disputed territories between Iraqi Kurdistan and the Iraqi central government. And Kirkuk is now on the frontlines of a two-week old military stand-off. After a December shootout between Iraqi police and Peshmerga in another disputed city, Tuz Khormato, left one dead and several injured, both the Peshmerga and the Iraqi Army have ringed Kirkuk."

Iraq In Hindsight: Views On the U.S. Withdrawal (Emma Sky, Center for a New American Security)

"In Iraq in Hindsight: Views on the U.S. Withdrawal, Emma Sky offers a pointed critique of U.S. policy over the last decade, arguing that valuable lessons can be learned from the country’s "American era" now that U.S. forces have withdrawn. A senior fellow at the Jackson Institute at Yale and a political advisor in Iraq to General Raymond Odierno from 2007 to 2010, Sky examines these lessons learned and urges U.S. policymakers to set realistic goals for future intervention. America’s experience in Iraq, she argues, should teach American leaders that above all, having a clear strategy, working to reach a political settlement and building long-term relationships with foreign leaders is critical. Sky examines these lessons by recounting her own experience in Iraq and asks, "could the United States have left Iraq a better state?""

–By Jennifer Parker and Mary Casey