The latest protests may have been suppressed but they revealed that democracy in Iraq is nothing but a facade. What sort of democratic government kills its own people, taking away their hopes and dreams? And can it still be called legitimate? Reacting indifferently to the deadly crackdown of innocent people in Iraq, the world needs to at least recognise that the root causes of Iraq’s ills are in the post-2003 system itself.

Bribery has become so common that there is a ‘price list’ for buying officials and players, depending on the importance of a game. Although incidents of corruption are openly addressed by local media and club officials, the Algerian Football Federation has not taken action despite claiming to want to clean up the game.

This pervasive corruption has made it difficult for Kuwait to attract foreign investors. Kuwait ranks 54th out of 140 in the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report 2018, the lowest ranking of the Gulf Cooperation Council countries, corruption playing an important (though not the only) role in that.

30 per cent of the Lebanese population (1.5 million people) live on less than $4 per day, or $120 per month, and about 300,000 people live on less than $2.5 per day, which is insufficient to meet their basic food needs. Unemployment rates have remained steady, rising from 6.2 per cent in 2016 to 6.3 per cent in 2017, with an average of 7.56 per cent from 1991 until 2017. However, inflation stood at 3.17 per cent in January 2019, with the price of food and non-alcoholic drinks rising faster than other consumer goods.

However, there is no clear rule that obliges Netanyahu to leave office during the investigation. He likely won’t. Most pundits predict he will at least hold onto power until the next general elections, which must be held before November 2019. In those elections, Netanyahu will seek a renewed mandate from his voters. A win would give him significant leverage. Being strong enough politically would allow him to try to remain in office, even while being prosecuted. If he succeeds, he will surpass David Ben-Gurion as the longest serving prime minister.

Reforms to the public sector and judiciary are needed to address the corruption at the heart of Lebanon’s economic crisis. However, all efforts could be in vain if the political elite continues to pocket the country’s wealth and act contrary to the public interest.

According to Transparency International, Jordan was ranked 59th of 180 in terms of perception of corruption in 2017 with a score of 48 out of 100, with 0 being highly corrupted and 100 very clean. Jordan’s penal code criminalizes corruption, including abuse of office, bribery, money laundering and extortion, but the government didn’t implement the law effectively.

The implication of government officials in drug trafficking is not surprising, Matthew Herbert, a research fellow with the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, told Fanack Chronicle. “This mirrors similar efforts by traffickers and businessmen to corrupt government officials at other points along cocaine trafficking routes, such as Guinea-Bissau or Mali,” he said. “What is surprising is that the Algerian officials were openly linked to the case. Usually such affairs are kept fairly quiet.”

Samah Hadid, the deputy director of Amnesty International, said that most human rights activists in the country were either in prison or on trial, their whereabouts still undisclosed. The others, she added, risk arrest at any time. MBS is clearly remaking Saudi Arabia in his image, while proving to be just as authoritarian as the rulers before him.

As painful as Zarrab’s testimony must have been for some in Ankara, the revelations seem to have done little to rock the foundations of the current Turkish government, and Erdogan’s hold on power looks secure. However, the case comes amid the worst deterioration of US-Turkish relations for decades, and its fallout is unlikely to be over.