Iraq: Oil-Rich Basra Threatens Vote to Pull Away from Iraq

Aug 27, 2018 | Gilgamesh Nabeel and Tamara Emad, Washington Times
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Protesters poured into the streets and picketed oil fields in southern Iraq amid growing discontent over the government’s failure to combat unemployment, provide drinkable water or guarantee a steady electricity supply to power the air conditioning needed to survive the country’s grueling August heat. Having largely eliminated the threat of Islamic State and cooled — for now — separatist pressures in the Kurdish enclave in the north, the central government ironically finds the greatest challenge to its authority from the Shiite-dominated south, where the failure to provide basic services, infrastructure and economic development have many fuming.