By Jon Wilks, for the Atlantic Council. Any opinions expressed here are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Iraq Business News.
Dispatch from Basra: Glimpses of hope in Iraq's forgotten south
There is perhaps nowhere else where the high hopes of the new Iraq were so dashed as in its second city, Basra.
In 2003, the United States and United Kingdom aspired towards a renaissance for Basra that would restore it as a major economic hub of the region-a gateway to Iraq, and an equal to the other great trading cities of the Gulf. Instead, its strategic location close to Iraq's oil resources and maritime outlets to the Gulf and the Iranian border is exactly what condemned the city as the main source of wealth extraction for Iraq's new Shia political elite, a murky morass of corruption and gangsterism, and a vital part of Iran's network of foreign allies and proxies.
In July, I made a return visit to the city as a private sector consultant (my last visit was on my farewell tour as British Ambassador in 2019). Happily, there were positive signs of stabilization and reconstruction.
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