What 24 hours of chaos in Iraq says about who controls the country

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

49% : Aside from being a leader of Iran, Khamenei is also a Shiite religious authority with followers beyond its borders.
48% : Iran says it seeks stronger guarantees in nuclear deal Iran needs stronger guarantees from Washington for the revival of a 2015 nuclear deal, its foreign minister said in Moscow on Wednesday, adding that the UN atomic watchdog should drop its "politically motivated probes" of Tehran's nuclear work, Reuters reported.
47% : Al-Sadr's withdrawal from politics, if sincere, could leave the remaining Shiites, many of whom are backed by Iran, to dominate the country's politics.
43% : Why it matters: The incident comes at a critical time in relations between Iran and the US.
41% : Background: After 16 months of indirect talks between Tehran and Washington, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on August 8 that the EU had laid down a final offer to overcome an impasse for the revival of the agreement.
40% : He fled to Iran during the US occupation of Iraq and returned to his country in 2011.
38% : "The US and the Gulf have been indirectly supportive of al-Sadr because of his stance against Iran, ignoring his historic strong ties with Iran and Iran's ability to influence him," said Marsin Alshamary, a research fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School's Middle East Initiative.
38% : I think [his] statement was released under pressure from Iran."
37% : Al-Sadr said he didn't believe al-Haeri resigned on his own volition, suggesting that he was pressed by Iran to do so in order to weaken him.
33% : The cleric has good relations with Gulf Arab states like Saudi Arabia and the UAE, which see Iran as a threat to regional security.
31% : Why it matters: The comment from Amir-Abdollahian came as Iran reviews Washington's answer to a final text drafted by the European Union that aims to overcome an impasse in attempts to revive the 2015 nuclear pact.

*Our bias meter rating uses data science including sentiment analysis, machine learning and our proprietary algorithm for determining biases in news articles. Bias scores are on a scale of -100% to 100% with higher negative scores being more liberal and higher positive scores being more conservative, and 0% being neutral. The rating is an independent analysis and is not affiliated nor sponsored by the news source or any other organization.