The interior minister of the United Arab Emirates has agreed to the request of an Iraqi police delegation that visited the Emirates recently to send a number of Iraqi officers and police officials to train civil police in the UAE.

The general secretary of the UAE interior minister’s office Gen. Nasir al-Kharibani al-Na'imi indicated in press remarks that the office of Interior Minister Shaykh Sayf bin Zayid Al Nahyan would intensify its relations and cooperation between the Emirati ministry and its Iraqi counterpart.

The Emirati official described the move as part of a broader Emirati strategy of developing security ties with regional countries, according to a report in Arabic on a website affiliated with the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, the Kurdish political party led by Iraqi President Jalal al-Talibani.

Gen. al-Na'imi recently received an Iraqi Interior Ministry delegation in the UAE that traveled with the goal of developing exchange of information and security expertise between the two states.

Here are the first few paragraphs of the executive summary of an updated version of the Center for Strategic and International Studies paper entitled "How Soon Is Safe? Iraqi Force Development and Conditions-Based U.S. Withdrawals," authored by Anthony Cordesman and Adam Mausner.

The US and Iraq now face a transition period that may well be as challenging as defeating Al Qa‘ida in Iraq, the other elements of the insurgency, and the threat from militias like the Mahdi Army. Iraq has made progress in political accommodation and in improving security. No one, however, can yet be certain that Iraq will achieve a enough political accommodation to deal with its remaining internal problems, whether there will be a new surge of civil violence, or whether Iraq will face problems with its neighbors.

Iran seeks to expand its influence, and Turkey will not tolerate a sanctuary for hostile Kurdish movements like the PKK. Arab support for Iraq remains weak, and Iraq‘s Arab neighbors fear both Shi‘ite and Iranian dominance of Iraq as well as a "Shi‘ite crescent" that includes Syria and Lebanon.

Much will depend on the capabilities of Iraqi security forces (ISF) and their ability to deal with internal conflicts and external pressures. A combination of US politics, Iraq‘s internal politics, and outside pressure from nations like Iran is reducing the timeframe of US withdrawal. Iraqi politics reflect the fact that public opinion generally sees the US as an occupation force and wants US and other Coalition forces to leave as soon as possible. Iraq's Kurds are the only group in Iraq where polls have shown showed a consistent desire for the US to stay.

As a result, the recent debate over the US-Iraqi status of force agreement focused on the timing and conditions for US withdrawal, increasing Iraqi jurisdiction over US military personnel and contractors, basing rights, and limiting US ability to conduct operations without Iraqi approval. The Security Agreement and Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) that have emerged from these negotiations paid far less attention to the need to create effective Iraqi security forces, despite the fact that speeding the rate of US withdrawal inevitably reduces the timeframe for developing Iraqi forces that can stand on their own.

Download the full report here: 090217_isf.no.graph.pdf, or scroll through the document below.

Over the past few days, the coverage of Gaza on Iraqi evening news has decreased, but tonight with the election undeniably in full swing, the focus turned a corner and was almost all domestic. Except for some not-so-veiled campaigning, coverage didn’t vary as much as it sometimes does.

Government officials, from Qasim Atta to Ali al-Dabbagh were busy assuring the population (perhaps a bit too much) that Iraq’s security forces would be more than up to the task of keeping the peace in Iraq, in the event of an overnight Obama US troop withdrawal.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki was shown giving a big speech in Samarra, where he said that he decreed that roads be opened, and declared that he was committed to rebuilding the golden dome which sectarianism brought down. He also met with Serbia’s defense minister, to discuss their assistance in arming and training the Iraqi Army.

It was widely reported that American soldiers killed two members of the Iraqi police in northeast Baghdad. A few channels said that only one had been killed, and the other wounded.

Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi announced that there are still civilians who do not know how to properly fill in election ballots. He suggested that citizens who do know, teach those who don’t.

The Sadrists announce that they are supporting two independent parties in the south of Iraq, and are directing their sizable constituency in the region to vote for them. The parties are called - for lack of a better translation – “The Integrity and Rebuilding List”, and “The Free List”.

The biggest stand-alone was Al-Rafadain which covered the death of Harith Sulayman al-Dhari’s wife, and little else. Al-Dhari, the leader of the Association of Muslim Scholars, received condolences from, among others, “Brother Mohmar Khadafi.”

Yousif al-Timimi contributed heavily to this report.

The director of Karbala Police said Friday that all police employees have been enrolled in required "training and education sessions" at the local police academy in order to "raise the professional standards" of its forces.

Col. Ali Jasim Muhammad, who took over the post this fall, said that new scientific developments have created previously unknown methods for committing crimes, leading to new needs for police training in high-tech methods, al-Malaf Press writes in Arabic.

Karbala has installed electronic checkpoints to discover wanted men as well as sonar and other high-tech devices, he said, and checkpoints at the city's entrances are equipped with sophisticated equipment to discover explosives.

Muhammad said that the security situation in Karbala was "good and stable," which he added was evidenced by the continuing numbers of pilgrims that the city's Shi'a holy sites were receiving.