After a U.S. occupation, years of sectarian violence and a jihadist insurgency, Iraq has become an improbable haven of calm in the Middle East.
The visit by President Ahmed al-Shara is another step in the transformation of the former rebel leader once wanted by the United States as a terrorist.
In 2019, President Trump sent U.S. commandos to to a small village in Syria to kill the leader of the terror group Islamic State. On Monday, Syria’s president, a former associate of that leader, will meet Mr. Trump in the White House.
Kataib Hezbollah, a hard-line Iraqi militia linked to Iran, held Elizabeth Tsurkov, a citizen of Israel and Russia, hostage for more than two years.
The two men face federal charges of planning a terrorist attack inspired by the Islamic State.
For many middle- and working-class New Yorkers, it’s an even more distant possibility than it used to be.