With the approval of Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, for the nomination of Nouri al-Maliki, a senior figure in Iraq’s SCF, to assume the post of prime minister for a third term, questions have intensified over how the United States might respond to this.

As Trump threatens to strike Iran if the authorities move to kill protesters, Tehran has relied on Iraqi militias loyal to it to help suppress demonstrations that erupted across the country on December 28, 2025, sparked by a sharp economic downturn.

Trump’s pullback from striking Iran exposed the regime’s resilience while he continued calling for a change in leadership.

The Iranian regime feels the pressure: Protests continue for 9 days, spreading and gaining momentum

Since the protests erupted, Iran’s leadership has leveled direct accusations at the United States, accusing it for what officials describe as riots sweeping the country.

As the Iranian regime grapples with mounting internal pressures, the prospect of its collapse is becoming increasingly plausible.

The sudden U.S. aggression on Venezuela and the kidnapping of its president, Nicolas Maduro, in early January 2026, sent shockwaves across the region, revealing sharply contrasting reactions from Iran and the Israeli Occupation.

Iran’s nearly week-long protests, sparked by economic despair but quickly widening into demands for broad change, have turned deadly.

After the 12-day war between Iran and “Israel” ended, fundamental questions resurfaced within Iranian political and media circles, most notably: Is a new war looming?

In a fresh escalation on Iraq’s crowded political stage, Iran-linked militias have launched a fierce campaign against the U.S. president’s envoy to Baghdad, Mark Savaya, going as far as issuing direct threats.

Tensions between Iran and the Gulf states have spiked sharply in the wake of a GCC summit in Manama, where member countries renewed their call for Tehran to end its “occupation” of the three Emirati islands.

Despite the Trump administration’s direct complicity in the aggression on the Arab world and the wider Middle East, the president’s new national security strategy sketches a shift in Washington’s priorities, signaling a pullback from the region.

In an unprecedented turn since the post-2003 era that followed the U.S. invasion, Iraq’s civil movement has been reduced to a single seat in parliament after its electoral lists suffered a major setback in the November 11, 2025, vote.

With Iraq’s parliamentary elections concluded, the winning alliances and parties have begun initial consultations to form the largest coalition that will select a candidate to lead the new government, amid deep divisions within the Coordination Framework.