„The Iraqi parliament started discussing a bill last month that will give influential tribal chiefs increased powers, including partnering with the federal government to enforce national security. The proposal to establish the Iraqi ‚Supreme Council for Clans and Tribes,‘ which has passed its first reading, immediately drew criticism that the plan will further weaken the government and undermine state sovereignty. Critics also voiced fears that, if endorsed, the law, which is proposed by the government, will sow further divides in a country already gridlocked by deep ethnic and sectarian schisms.
Even after it emerged as a modern state after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and with British colonial rule in the 1920s, Iraq has remained largely tribal and its society distinguished on ethnic and religious grounds. But why would the Shia-led Iraqi government risk moving forward to the past?“ (Salah Nasrawi: „Towards a tribal Iraq“)
