Since 1980,the foreign relations of Iraq have been influenced by a number of controversial decisions by the Saddam Hussein administration. Hussein had good relations with the Soviet Union and a number of western countries such as France and Germany,who provided him with advanced weapons systems. He also developed a tenuous relation with the United States,who supported him during the Iran–Iraq War. However,the Invasion of Kuwait that triggered the Gulf War brutally changed Iraq's relations with the Arab World and the West. Egypt,Saudi Arabia,Syria and others were among the countries that supported Kuwait in the UN coalition. After the Hussein administration was toppled by the 2003 U.S. invasion,the governments that succeeded it have now tried to establish relations with various nations.
The tribe of Shammar is a tribal Arab Qahtanite confederation,descended from the Tayy,which migrated into the northern Arabian Peninsula from Yemen in the second century. It is the largest branch of the Tayy,and one of the largest and most influential Arab tribes. The historical and traditional seat of the tribe's leadership is in the city of Ḥaʼil in what was the Emirate of Jabal Shammar in what is now Saudi Arabia. In its "golden age",around 1850,the Shammar ruled much of central and northern Arabia from Riyadh to the frontiers of Syria and the vast area of Upper Mesopotamia.
Carl Anders Peter Hultqvist is a Swedish politician of the Social Democrats who served as the Minister for Defence in the Swedish Government from 2014 to 2022.
Ulf Hjalmar Kristersson is a Swedish politician who has been serving as Prime Minister of Sweden since 2022. He has been the leader of the Moderate Party (M) since October 2017 and a member of the Riksdag (MP) for Södermanland County since 2014 and for Stockholm County from 1991 to 2000. He previously served as Minister for Social Security from 2010 to 2014 and as Chairman of the Moderate Youth League from 1988 to 1992.
On 28 February 1986,at 23:21 CET,Olof Palme,Prime Minister of Sweden,was fatally wounded by a single gunshot while walking home from a cinema with his wife Lisbeth Palme on the central Stockholm street Sveavägen. Lisbeth Palme was slightly wounded by a second shot. The couple did not have bodyguards with them.
Jan Arne Björklund is a Swedish Liberal politician. He was member of the Riksdag from 2006 to 2019,representing Stockholm County,and served as leader of the Liberals from 2007 to 2019. Björklund served as Minister for Education from 2007 to 2014,and as Deputy Prime Minister of Sweden from 2010 to 2014.
Until the late 2000s terrorism in Sweden was not seen as a serious threat to the security of the state. However,there has been a rise in far right and Islamist terrorist activity in the 21st century.
Mattias Svensson is a Swedish libertarian writer and political commentator. He is currently a freelance writer and journalist,writing for several Swedish newspapers and magazines,including Dagens Nyheter and Aftonbladet. He used to work as an editor at the Swedish libertarian magazine Neo,which was closed down in 2015.
Adnan Khairallah was an Iraqi military officer and Saddam Hussein's brother-in-law and cousin. He held several titles and was a member of the Iraqi Revolutionary Command Council. He also served as the Defence Minister of Iraq from 1979 until his death,being appointed days after Saddam Hussein succeeded to the Presidency.
Iraq–Sweden relations are foreign relations between Iraq and Sweden. Iraq has an embassy in Stockholm,and a new Swedish embassy opened in Baghdad in 2009. Iraq has severed all ties with Sweden since July 2023,after Swedish authorities allowed a man to burn the Iraqi flag and the Quran in front of the Iraqi Embassy,Stockholm.
On 11 December 2010,two bombs exploded in central Stockholm,killing the bomber. Swedish Minister for Foreign Affairs Carl Bildt and the Swedish Security Service (SÄPO) described the bombings as acts of terrorism.
Mohammed Shia' Al Sudani is an Iraqi politician who has been the Prime Minister of Iraq since 27 October 2022. He was the Human Rights Minister of Iraq in the Council of Ministers of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki from 2010 to October 2014. He was Governor of Maysan Province in 2009 and 2010.
Hanif Bali is a Swedish politician of the Moderate Party and a former board member of the party. He was member of the Riksdag for Stockholm County between 2010 and 2022. He lives in Österåker,Åkersberga,where he is now active in municipal politics.
Corruption is pervasive at all levels of government in Iraq. In 2021,President Barham Salih stated that US$150 billion of oil money had been stolen and smuggled out of Iraq in corrupt deals since the 2003 U.S. invasion. Endemic corruption pervades Iraq's oil and gas sectors,which still accounts for more than 99 percent of the country’s exports and 85 percent of the government’s budget. The Iraqi economy is predominantly a cash economy,making it almost impossible to trace the amount or the path the money follows.
Sweden is home to one of the largest communities of the Mandaean ethnoreligious group,numbering between 10,000-20,000 people (2019). By comparison,there are now only about 3,000 Mandaeans in Iraq. Several thousand Swedish Mandaeans were granted asylum status as refugees from persecution in Iraq and Syria.
The Embassy of Sweden in Baghdad is Sweden's diplomatic mission in Iraq. The mission consists of an embassy,a number of Swedes from the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and local staff. Ambassador since 2022 is Jessica Svärdström.
On 7 April 2017,a vehicle-ramming Islamist terrorist attack took place in central Stockholm,the capital of Sweden. A hijacked truck was deliberately driven into crowds along Drottninggatan before being crashed into an Åhléns department store. Five people,the youngest an 11 year old girl,were killed. 14 others were seriously injured.
Erfan al-Hiyali was the Defence minister of Iraq,serving in the Cabinet of Haider al-Abadi. The Iraqi parliament voted on al-Hiyali as defense minister on 30 January 2017. He was succeeded by Najah al-Shammari on 24 June 2019. He was also formerly the Commander of Iraqi Central Command.
Parliamentary elections were held in Iraq on 12 May 2018. The elections decided the 329 members of the Council of Representatives,the country's unicameral legislature,who in turn will elect the Iraqi president and prime minister. The Iraqi parliament ordered a manual recount of the results on 6 June 2018. On 10 June 2018,a storage site in Baghdad housing roughly half of the ballots from the May parliamentary election caught fire.
The Swedish military research facility has estimated that 300 individuals traveled from Sweden to serve as foreign fighters on behalf of ISIS and Jabhat al-Nusra in the Syrian Civil War,as well as in the Iraqi Civil War. The terrorism expert Magnus Norell claimed in an interview with Dagens Nyheter that the actual number might be twice as high. A law was passed in 2016 criminalizing traveling to conflict zones with the purpose of serving as a foreign fighter. As of May 2020,none of the Swedish foreign fighters have been convicted under the new ban on traveling with terroristic goals ("terrorresor"). The majority of jihadist foreign fighters departed to join ISIS and Jabat al-Nusra before the new law came into effect.
